Just As Long As You Stand
by Becky Galler
Summary: Who was Chris' first love? Did Gordie write a story about a girl he had a crush on? Who was Teddy’s first kiss? Is it possible that Vern got a date? Ok, the last one is a bit unlikely. It's my first shot at fanfic, so plz read it or Ace'll be after you.
1. Introduction

Okay readers. You probably know the story of Castle Rock's foursome Gordie LaChance, Chris Chambers, Teddy Duchamp, and Vern Tessio. And if you don't, then you're an idiot. If you're reading a Stand by Me fan fiction, then you might as well check out the movie before you read this. Otherwise, you won't understand a thing that's in my story. I'm just saying.

The ending of the movie was really sad, so I'm putting in this side story. Just like the narrator said "We talked into the night. The kind of talk that seemed important…until you discover girls." What happened when they _did_ discover girls? When did Chris first fall in love? Did Gordie write a love story about a girl with whom he was infatuated with? Who was Teddy's first kiss? Was it possible that Vern got a date? Ok, the last one is sort of unlikely. Well, sort of unlikely.

So I decided to write a story about the boy's love lives while they still were young. It'll start out in the summer of 1957, about two years before the events in Stand by Me took place. The new characters (aw yeah I got kick-ass OCs!!!) are girls that bond with the LCDT foursome (LaChance, Chambers, Duchamp, and Tessio). They're all the same age as the boys.

The first girl that is introduced in this story is Lou. Her name's actually Louise, but she doesn't like being called that. She is an extremely carefree tomboy that is gifted with the ability of climbing up/over/under things, impersonating a boy, drawing, and running like the wind, which often leaves her friends panting and gasping for breath, usually yelling after her to slow down. But she's extremely resourceful and is a quick thinker.

Sam is…well…creative. Sometimes she tends to be a little ridiculous; especially when it comes to carrying some type of instrument everywhere she goes. But she isn't annoying, at least not always. Though sometimes at night while she and her friends are out camping and she's bored she'll start singing something random. Then they yell at her to be quiet and go to sleep.

The most extroverted of them all is Debbie, who is mildly eccentric and a bit bossy. Talkative and tangy, she's the most outgoing of the group. Yes, we all know who she's gonna end up with, but I'm gonna make it a little more interesting, if you know what I mean. She sometimes complains a lot, but most of the time she's patient enough. But you don't want to get her angry; believe me you don't.

Okay, Jimmie is the most introverted, yet somehow she seems to be the most entertaining of the group, especially with the fact that she can make any kind of joke, vulgar or not. She's the nicest, second in being resourceful compared to Lou. She doesn't like being subjected to doing stuff like telling a past story or being a guinea pig for the new milkshake flavor at the Diner. Beneath her quiet exterior lies the mind of a genius way ahead of her time.

Alright, guys. Feel free to check every now and then to see if I've added a new chapter or not. Don't worry; I'm not the type to make people wait…at least not much. So, hopefully you'll like my Stand by Me fan fiction, Just As Long As You Stand.


	2. A new home in Castle Rock

Castle Rock, Oregon. 1957.

"Why?! Why, why, why?!" A girl was shouting at the top of her lungs. Okay, I should fill you in; this girl's name is Louise, but just to let you know, calling her that is pretty much the same as signing your own death warrant. Call her Lou; she'll appreciate it if you do.

"What is it now Lulu?" her brother wandered around from the side of the house.

"Max," Lou, sitting down, asked dreamily, "why do we have to move here? I wanna go back home! Back to Colorado, back to my beautiful Rockies, back to my little house with a lake out back, why can't we go back?"

"Lulu," Max began, "I don't want to be here either, but you know that this is what's best. Especially after Gramps…" his voice trailed off. Lou sighed and hugged her brother. At least he and the rest of her family were here; at least she'd be able to build a new life here, in Castle Rock, Oregon.

"Thanks Max. I'm just gonna go for a walk."

"You better not be running off back to Denver!"

"Now that you mention it, great idea!" she joked and pulled on a Yankee cap over her shoulder blade-length wavy black hair. She began running off towards the town streets, going at a speed pretty incredible for an 11-year-old girl. Then again, this was what made Lou a little…weird. She preferred to play ball and act like a boy rather than try on dresses and act like a complete girly girl.

She passed a baseball field and stopped to watch. Boys were yelling and laughing as they zigzagged back and forth across the white chalk diamond. Lou gripped onto the black fence separating them from her. She then sighed and let go of the fence.

_They would never let me play. Just cuz I'm a girl. It sucks; why can't I be a boy? _She thought to herself as she walked away from her happy place. _Then again, it is good that I'm not a boy; otherwise older guys would beat me up everyday at school, and I'd rather not come home with shiners._ _But still I-_

_My hobby's so strange_

_Why can't I change?_

_People look at me and laugh_

_Well, they're gonna get kicked on my behalf_

"What the-?" Lou spun around and saw a girl her age with a guitar sitting in the grass. But the girl continued, so Lou just shut up, sat opposite her on the green, and let her continue.

_People just don't see me for who I really am_

_Well, they can kiss my butt and scram_

_This is the real me_

_This is who I wanna be_

_You can't make me different_

_Try to be decent_

_Just you try_

_Don't make me cry_

The girl looked up and stopped. Lou observed her; she had blue eyes and curly blonde hair that seemed to have some red impressions here and there.

"Don't stop; I was just listening!"

"That's all I had. Hey, I've never seen y' around before. Are you new around town?" the guitarist asked.

"Uh, yeah; I'm here from Denver. I'm Lou."

"The name's Sam."

"Nice to meet you, to tell you the truth I'm totally lost."

"Castle Rock's not that big, but then again you deserve a tour. Follow me." So Sam led Lou for about an hour around the whole town; how they managed this I don't know. Occasionally Sam would stop to point out directions to the school, the path leading to the lake, the road to take in order to get to the Blue Point Diner, and some other random places.

"So," Sam started as they stopped for milkshakes at the Blue Point, "what d'you think of our comfy little town?"

"I could adjust." Lou said through sips of chocolate milkshake. She closed her eyes for a moment, thinking of what she could do in the future. She then decided to listen in to different conversations; they seemed pretty random until-

"So whattaya got?

"25."

"13."

"Aw c'mon!"

Lou turned around in her seat to get a good look at the boys talking in the booth close by. Yeah, you can pretty much guess it; she saw 11-year-olds Gordie, Chris, Teddy, and Vern (aw, so cute!). She casually walked over to the jukebox and looked through the songs; still listening to the boys all the while (she doesn't know who they are yet duh). Suddenly she heard a strange sound; it was just like a screech being converted to laugh. Lou turned to the source of the sound; it was one of the boys. He was lightly tanned, had dirty blond hair combed off to the right with hair gel, and brown eyes that were framed by coke-bottle glasses. He was laughing, yet Lou thought he was in the early stages of hyperventilation. She just shook her head and continued flipping through the songs.

"Teddy, stop that; you're really freakin' me out!" A little plump boy complained to Mr. Hyperventilation Maniac.

"Ah, Vern-O. You naïve, simple boy; this is the way I live."

"Sure. C'mon man, deal the cards." A boy with slight muscles and a buzz cut said to him.

"Nah, I'm done playin'. Besides, we could use some new music; I've had it with all of those girls putting on Elvis."

"Pelvis Elvis." A scrawny boy muttered as he scribbled down something on a napkin. They all burst out laughing, and then eventually calmed down after awhile. Then the boy with the glasses got out of the booth and made his way over to the jukebox. He noticed Lou.

"Hello, lil' darlin'."

No response from Lou.

"New here?"

"Yeah."

"Whatcha' doin'?"

"Looking for something that isn't Elvis. Or should I say, Pelvis Elvis."

Once again, there was a round of hyperventilation, then a side affect of stomach pains from laughing too hard. Hell, he was clutching his side with one hand and the jukebox with the other in order to support himself.

"What's so funny about me saying it?"

"I just can't picture a gal saying it."

"What, Pelvis Elvis?"

"Stop that! You're killing me here!" He actually slid onto the floor laughing, gasping for breath. Grownups and old people from nearby tables looked over for a moment and then turned away, shaking their heads in disapproval.

"Listen, man; I gotta get home before dark; I'll see you around. By the way, put on Shirley and Lee; I like _Let the Good Times Roll._" Lou left him at the jukebox, looking slightly surprised, and ran back to find Sam, who was gazing off at something. Or someone; Lou caught a view of whom Sam was looking at; the scrawny boy writing on the napkin.

"Sam?"

She nearly jumped off of her seat in surprise. "Huh, what?"

"I think we need to get going."

"Yeah, you're probably right."

So they left the Diner and walked, talking all the way. They stopped once they came to a road that divided their houses.

"Lou, listen." Sam said. "Y' wanna come over to my house tomorrow and meets two friends of mine? I'm sure you'll like 'em."

"Sure. Why not?" Lou replied with a small smile. "See y' tomorrow!"

"Bye!"

As Lou walked home alone, she thought to herself for awhile. _Maybe I can do even more than adjust. One day, I might even be willing to call Castle Rock my home._


	3. Timeskip

Time skip

The next day, Sam got Lou to meet her friends Debbie and Jimmie, whom Lou immediately bonded with. The four of them became the closest foursome in Castle Rock (well, second to the LCDT foursome). Everyday until the end of the summer, they would hangout and do stuff together, like listen to music, run around town, look for ghosts, use Sam's Ouija board named Clyde, push each other into the lake and whatnot. Okay, maybe I don't need all this to make my point that they're like a female version of LCDT.

Eventually they all entered grammar school together. When Lou entered grammar school with them, they made sure that no one treated her with disrespect and got away with it. A boy named Freddie called her flatchested, and later he found a worm in his peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Let's face it okay; nobody wants a worm in their sandwich. But what caught Lou by surprise was finally actually meeting the foursome that she had seen at the Blue Point with Sam.

She liked watching what went on between Gordie LaChance, Chris Chambers, Teddy Duchamp, and Vern Tessio. Sometimes, when it got too interesting she would go over and join them in whatever they were doing, even if it involved shoving snow down someone's pants. Occasionally Sam or Debbie would join in the activities, but in order to get Jimmie to come they would have to drag her over while Jimmie was fighting them off viciously nail and tooth to get back to her quiet spot under some oak trees.

Back to what the girls did together; in order to waste their free time usefully, Debbie had the idea that they form a club that takes on small jobs around Castle Rock. After only around five months (and a lot of babysitting, walking dogs, cleaning houses (don't forget litter boxes), delivering papers, doing people's dirty laundry, mowing lawns, raking leaves, running errands, and in Jimmie's unfortunate case acting as a sibling slave for her older sister for two weeks, they brought all of their savings together at Debbie's house, which they counted and evaluated to be $105, which would be about $532.35 by today's standards. What they did with it; they put the $100 in a safe that was kept at the very back and top of Debbie's closet, out of reach from siblings in debt needing extra cash. But they took the $5 (about $25.35 now) to the diner, where they got sugar high off soda pop and bloated due to excessive milkshake consumption…

But something's been on Lou's mind for about 2 years now. Read the next chapter and see what happens next! Keep reading; I'll be posting!


	4. Balls, Trees, and Scissors

Castle Rock. 1959.

"Alright, if 4x+6 equals 42, then what's x?"

"It's so simple; x equals 9, dimwit."

"Hey, watch it!"

"It's not like it's my fault you have the IQ of a deranged rabid squirrel."

"Aw, shut up."

Lou was climbing up a tree while listening to Debbie and Sam go on about mathematics. Jimmie cast an irritated look at them over the top of her notebook, then sighed and returned to, well, whatever she was doing, muttering "Idiots."

"Hey, how much longer till lunch ends?"

"Um," Lou reached over and looked down at her wristwatch, "about fifteen minutes."

"Well, we're all done with English and math, so whattaya wanna do?"

"I wanna rape Gordie."

Even though it was just a harmless joke, they all burst into laughter, giggling hysterically to the point that Lou nearly falls out of the tree. As they began to calm down, a group of boys passed by (it wasn't LCDT by the way).

"Hey, Walker! Get down from that tree before you fall and hurt yourself like the girl you are!"

"Shut your pie hole Martin, before I _do _get down from here and kick your ass!"

"Ha! You don't even have the guts, you flat chested bitch!"

"That does it!" Lou jumped own from the tree as gracefully as a cat and ran like the wind towards Martin. Before she could aim a kick, he slapped Lou across the face.

"Stop it, you shity son of a-!" Jimmie had run up to the two and stopped Martin from hitting Lou again.

"-Do that again, and I'll-!"

"What?! Just what're you gonna do, Adams? String me up by my toes? Tell a teacher and get my ass kicked into detention?" Martin taunted.

"No, but what I _might_ do is go to the hardware store; they've got a sale going on there. I'll buy the biggest pair of scissors they've got and follow you around school with them, and if you don't apologize to Lou, then off goes your chances of ever making offspring." An evil grin had spread itself onto Jimmie's face.

"Fine, just keep your friend off the trees; she'll get hurt." Martin slowly backed away, obviously shaken up, then ran off.

"Hmph, jerk. You okay?"

"Yeah, can we still get those scissors?"

"What for?"

"I dunno, but they sounded pretty darn useful when you mentioned them."

This resulted in a groan from Jimmie, which brought a small smile to Lou's face. She just loved to tease Jimmie; it was so much fun.

The rest of lunch flew by, as well as the rest of school. The girls soon found themselves walking home.

"Can you believe it?" Debbie exclaimed through the wind.

"Can we believe what?" Sam mumbled.

"In a couple months, we're gonna be leaving grammar school for good; at the end of the summer, we'll be in junior high!"

"Oh God, don't remind me." Lou mumbled.

They continued walking in silence for awhile, and then passed by the baseball field.

"Y' want my advice?"

"Hit me."

"Go over there and show them what you're made of."

"Okay…" Lou pulled on her baseball cap and ran past the fence towards the field, but she didn't get too far before two boys stopped her.

"Alright, what's the problem?" Lou drawled.

"You're a girl, we're guys only. Scram."

"Nope."

"Are you doing this to piss us off?! Get off the diamond!"

"Make me!"

"What's going on over here?"

Someone had made their way over, obviously interested in the argument.

"Chris," one of the boys started, "tell this nutcase that girls can't play baseball."

"No one's ever proven that they _can't_." Lou mumbled.

"Listen, we'll let her have a go at bat; after that, we'll know if we can let her play or not."

"Hmm, fair enough."

"Whatever."

So Lou got her chance; let's just say she hit a hard ball and the guys were really pissed off over the fact that she was actually pretty good. But it wouldn't last; soon the team she was on moved out to the field. Lou ran and held out her catcher's mitt in order to snag the oncoming ball. But somebody else was racing towards the ball as well, and reached out to grab the ball. The boy's mitt connected with Lou's face, causing her to fall down hard onto the dirt.

"Woo hoo; got the ball!"

"Teddy, you retard! Look what you did!"

Lou held her hand to her mouth for awhile; it came back bloody. She looked up, but her vision was slightly screwed since she was dizzy from the blow.

"Told you we shouldn't have let her play!"

"She only got hurt 'cause Duchamp was too stupid to see where he was going!"

"Hey, I was focused on the ball! What else do you guys expect me to do in this game, suck on the ball?!"

"Ha! It'll be an eternity before some tramp sucks on _your_ balls, Teddy!"

_Gross_, Lou thought to herself, _the only things boys my age talk about nowadays are balls_.

"Hey, Lou."

Lou looked up. Teddy Duchamp. He held out a hand to her in order to pull her off the ground. Lou shook her head and steadied herself to her feet, rubbing away the blood with the edge of her sleeve. Teddy's arm fell limply to his side.

"Listen, I'm really sorry," he said with an apologetic look on his face.

"I gotta go rinse off." Lou stated before walking away, leaving Teddy looking a bit sad. As soon as she was out of hearing distance, Vern wandered over with a sneer on his face.

"Did y' see what you did? Boy, will she be pissed or what!"

Teddy threw a punch at Vern. Vern flinched, but Teddy stopped himself before he actually hit Vern.

"Two for flinching Vern-O," Teddy said as he socked Vern twice in the shoulder.

"Aw man."

When Lou got back past the fence, Debbie threw a fit and pulled out a tissue, cursing Teddy to hell as she watered it to give to her friend.

"Told you she shouldn't have gone."

"You didn't even say anything, Jimmie!"

"Yeah, well I was thinking it."

"It doesn't make much of a difference now. I've got a bloody face and a black eye; my mom's gonna freak out." Lou said through a wet tissue pressed against her nose.

Luckily her mother wasn't home yet, but her brothers were and they all threw a fit. Eventually they stopped yelling at her and proceeded to cleaning up her face. Now the only thing she could see in the mirror was the shiner that had begun growing under her eye.

Lou made her way up to her bedroom and closed the door behind her. She threw herself backwards onto her bed and reached for something on the edge of her nightstand; a PEZ dispenser. She pulled out of the little rectangular candies and put it in her mouth.

_Strawberry, yum_.

Suddenly there was a knock on her bedroom window, Lou looked up and saw the outline of somebody right outside her bedroom window, which was on the second floor of the house. She scooted herself closer to the window and pulled away the yellow and orange plaid shades. She came face to face with someone, someone with coke bottle glasses and dirty blond hair…


	5. Puppies and Pants

"Teddy! What the-?!" Lou started, but the boy in front of her stopped her by pressing his finger to her mouth.

"Shhh! D' you want everyone in the neighborhood to know I'm up here?!" he inquired anxiously.

"Not in particular. What the hell do you want?"

"Well," Teddy reclined against the trunk of the tree, whose branch, which he was currently sitting on, extended to Lou's bedroom window (which would also explain how he was right in front of the glass), "I came over here to check up on you. Y' know, see how you were doing and shit."

"I'm okay, but I have a beautiful shiner growing under my eye," Lou commented as she indicated the swollen area on the upper part of her cheek.

"Listen, Lou." Teddy retracted from his relaxed position and carefully climbed back onto the branches closer to the window. "I'm sorry. I'm really damn sorry about hitting you; it was an accident."

"I didn't think you did it on purpose, but you didn't seem to be on my side earlier." She was referring to how Teddy was one of the boys jeering at her.

Teddy hung his head in guilt, then looked back up at her and nodded. She was right, but what she _didn't _know was that he had started cheering for her as she ran past the third base and scored a homerun. He decided not to say anything about it.

"Look, Lou. Come back to the baseball field; if any of those guys give you shit, I'll beat them so hard that they can't feel their balls."

"I don't know, Teddy. They're just gonna keep rankin' me out 'cause I'm a gal."

"Really, I hardly noticed you were."

"Hey!" Lou punched in the arm, causing him to lose slight balance. He gripped the tree branch and managed to steady himself.

"C'mon, I ran all the way from my house back to the baseball field to get this!"

Teddy reached into his knapsack and pulled out a dirty baseball catcher's mitt. Lou's baseball mitt. She slowly took it from him and fingered the tough brown leather.

"Why'd you care so much?" She asked, keeping her eyes on the mitt in her hands.

""Cause you're real substance, Lou."

"I had no idea I was a drug."

"Ee-hee-hee, y' know what I mean. You're a toughie, you're not one of those chicks at school that focus only on skirts and how long it'll take for their-"

"Thanks Ted. But-"

"But nothin'! I ran all the way from my house, guess I'm gonna have to do this too." He looked down to the grass, and then Lou realized that three of his friends were down there.

"Alright, one, two, three!" Gordie LaChance counted off before the four of them burst into song.

_Sorry, sorry  
Oh, so sorry  
Uh-oh _

I ran all the home  
Just to say I'm sorry (sorry)  
What can I say  
I ran all the way  
Yay, yay, yay

I ran all the home  
Just to say I'm sorry (sorry)  
Please let me stay  
I ran all the way  
Yay, yay, yay

And now I'm sorry, sorry, sorry  
I didn't mean to make you cry  
Let's make amends  
After all, we're more than friends  
Yay, yay, yay

I ran all the home  
Just to say I'm sorry (sorry)  
What can I say  
I ran all the way  
Yay, yay, yay 

Lou began laughing; it was so funny to see friends from school do this sort of thing in order to amuse you. They were singing out of tune, but it didn't matter. She climbed down the tree with Teddy and began throwing one-dollar bills at them.

"Tips, y' know you guys didn't have to go _that_ far!"

"Yeah, well," Chris Chambers grinned, "it was definitely worth it. Hope to see you on the field tomorrow."

"C'mon Vern, get off the ground; y' don't need all of those dollar bills," Gordie said.

"Yeah, I do." Seeing the looks of doubt on his friends' faces, he upheld his statement. "No, sincerely; I still can't find my pennies!"

Lou cocked her head to the side and gave Chris a "Should I ask?" look. He just shook his head, smiling. He seemed amused by the whole thing.

Lou watched as he, Gordie, and Vern climbed over her fence and disappeared from sight behind the boards of wood. Teddy began walking back too.

"Hey Teddy?"

He turned around with his hands in his pockets.

"Yeah?"

"How'd you guys get past my dog?"

"Dog? Whattaya mean?"

"Scout, my golden retriever who takes afternoon naps in that doghouse…" Lou's voice trailed off as she approached the doghouse at the end of her yard; it was empty.

"Oh crap," she muttered.

"I'll help you look." Teddy offered, but Lou just shook her head.

"Thanks, but this isn't the first time this has happened."

"That what's happened?" He was extremely curious.

Lou sighed, and then motioned to follow her inside her house through the backdoor. They climbed down the stairs to the basement and walked over to a box that was situated in a corner. Teddy looked into the box; inside the cardboard were four small golden retriever puppies.

"In three days, these little guys will have good homes with loving families that'll take good care of 'em. They'll grow up to be strong, friendly dogs in no time."

"Who, the pups or the owners?" Teddy smirked. Lou rolled her eyes.

"Haha, really funny Duchamp," she stated, slightly annoyed.

"You must really like dogs." The bespectacled boy commented, leaning down to have a better look at the puppies.

"Not just dogs, I'm just an animal lover in general. Hey, y' wanna hold one for awhile?"

"Sure."

"Okay, but be real soft with him; even at 8 weeks they're pretty fragile." Lou reached into the box and pulled one of the puppies out gently. Teddy nodded, then carefully took the pup in his two hands and began cradling it against his ribcage. The little golden retriever sleepily licked his bearer's arms as a simple sign of affection, making Teddy chuckle.

"Here, lemme have him; you're boring him to death." Lou giggled as the puppy's eyes began to droop.

"It's alright, I'll put him back in. C'mon, little guy; time for bed." Teddy slowly lowered the pup back into the box and settled in down with its siblings.

"So, how many times has this happened?" He asked as he wiped his hands on his jeans.

"If my dog's pregnant again this time, then it would be the sixth." Lou replied.

"The sixth?!" Teddy didn't even know that it was possible for a dog to give birth more than three times. Lou simply nodded and then noticed something.

"Um, Teddy?"

"What is it now?"

"I need to tell you something, something important, something that could affect the rest of your life and how people see you."

"Yeah, what?" Teddy asked sheepishly.

"There's a hole in the seat of your pants," she stated quietly.

Teddy looked down, and then grabbed his pants, blushing.

"Oh shit."

Just for you readers to know, Teddy didn't strip down in order for Lou to fix his pants or anything; she just lent him a football magazine from her brothers' room to cover his butt while he walked until he got home, a bit embarassed.


	6. The Tomboy Code

Lou began playing baseball out in the field, and as promised, did not get a hard time from the other boys, thanks to Chris, Gordie, Teddy, and Vern. But something was bothering Lou; when her friends came to watch her play, she wasn't the only one they were watching. Though Jimmie didn't pay attention to the boys, and Sam only sometimes glanced over to look at a special _someone_, Debbie did, and got a little obnoxious because she was the kind of friend that tended to go a little cuckoo when there were boys, sometimes shirtless and sweating, running around a field in broad daylight, and happened to be her idea of "cute."

"Honestly, Debs, I don't get it." Lou mumbled as she brought her water bottle to her mouth and gulped down the cool, icy liquid that flowed from the nozzle.

"Get what?" Debbie asked as she reluctantly tore her gaze from the field to her friend, who was sitting on the bench.

"Why do you like looking at them so much? I swear, they're a bunch of wild animals that will push you down and rape you in an alley if you're not careful."

Debbie sighed: Lou didn't understand the whole concept of chemistry between the two human genders, probably because puberty started for her a bit later than the other girls in their grade. Well, it was either that or she still thought that boys had cooties.

"Sam, why'd you keep looking at Gordie?"

The three girls looked up at Jimmie, who rarely ever spoke about this subject; boys. Sam immediately turned red and began protesting that she did not look at Gordie, but then Debbie began bugging her, insisting that Sam tells them why she kept glancing at LaChance. After about five minutes, Debbie finally got to Sam.

"Alright, alright: I'll tell you, just stop it with your whining!" She took a deep breath before letting it all out.

"I want Gordie to help me."

"Help you lose your virginity? I'll see what I can do." Debbie teased her friend, which resulted in groans from Sam and looks of utter disgust from Jimmie and Lou.

"Oh, shut up, y' know what I mean; I want him to help me write a song; help me get inspiration."

"Inspiration can be found in many ways, one of them is spending time with someone you really care about, oh, let's say a male sweetheart." Debbie smirked.

"Debbie," Lou began slowly, "you are the most legally insane person I know, and I'm saying 'cause I care about you; get some _help_."

Sam let out short giggles and Jimmie snickered to herself as Debbie frowned.

"One day, _Louise Rebecca Walker_, you will learn what happens when you fall in love, and when you do-"

"Well _Deborah Jennifer Miller_, it's not gonna happen; I'm not interested in love and to top it all of, there aren't any boys I'm even interested in." Lou stated firmly.

"Later in life, it'll come to you, I'm sure," Debbie replied.

Lou sighed, and then looked at her friend for quite some time.

"You don't know the Tomboy Code, do you?"

"The Tomboy Code?" Debbie asked, perplexed and confused. Lou nodded and continued.

"The Tomboy Code," she began, "is a small set of guidelines that tomboys like myself go by. These guidelines? Number one; don't dress all prissy and pink. Number two; hang out with people who like you for who you are and not for background and crap like that. Number three is stay physically active; playing a lot of sports is good for you and it's really fun. Number four; never cry when people can see you. Number five is-"

"Never fall in love, we get it damnit! Sheesh! D' you really have to take those guidelines seriously? Where'd you get them from anyways?"

"Out of one of my brother Dylan's overdue library books," Lou replied innocently, obviously telling the truth.

"Figures," Sam mumbled, "besides, I don't like Gordie like _that_, I like somebody else, and it's none of your business."

"Don't start," Jimmie snapped at Debbie, who opened her mouth and was about to speak before Jimmie cut her clean off. She silently fumed, then began watching the game again.

Little did _they_ know that a couple yards away on another bench, a group of boys were sitting on another bench, talking about the same thing.

Well, not exactly the same thing, but basically the same thing; the opposite gender.

"Alright, there are 34 kids in our class, and 16 of them are girls. Which one seems the most appealing?" Gordie inquired.

"I don't give a shit, just as long as she's beautiful, has long hair, and has a kick- ass body." Teddy took a long draw from a cigarette and blew puffs of smoke into Gordie's face, who coughed and waved the smoke away from his eyes in order to avoid irritation and swelling. Chris only chuckled and brought the white tube to his mouth for more smoky pleasures.

"Okay, there's Tessa," Vern counted off his list, "Kathy and Leigh Ann-"

"Suzie?" Gordie asked.

"Yeah, her too, and also-" Vern started.

"Hey, there's also that girl with blonde hair who even brings a handheld radio into class. Sam, I think." Chris commented. Vern nodded, then continued down the list, but looked up after a couple seconds.

"Would Lou be a good option?" he asked unsurely. His friends burst into laughter, but then realized that he was serious.

"Lou? I dunno actually." Teddy said, scratching his head in thought. "I mean, she's nice and all, but can you really imagine yourself going out with her?"

"That's true, but she _is _a chick, and like every other chick on earth-or at least in Castle Rock-she gets crushes on guys like us." Chris stated in a very mockingly official way.

"I think Gordie likes someone." Teddy stated out of the blue. Gordie blushed and shook his head, but it was pretty obvious that he was lying.

"If you hound me about it, I'll kill you," he said, glaring at Teddy, his cheeks still red. Gosh, Gordie can be so hot when he's angry.

Teddy just laughed, then sighed. He didn't want to admit it, but he felt something for _someone_. He just didn't know what it was yet, and even if he asked the guys, then they would just laugh at him and call him a pussy.

"The suspense is gettin' to me, Gordo! Who's the gal?" Vern asked excitedly, punching his friend's arm playfully. Gordie just shook his head and gave Vern the look. The look that could _kill_. Possibly.

"It doesn't matter to me; what girl'll have a Chambers?" Chris leaned back against the fence, then began murmuring softly.

_Love's what I want_

_It's what I need_

_If I wrote in another font_

_I'd be a different story_

"That's a real piece of shit, Chris. Since when do you think up sappy poetry like that?" Teddy cocked his head over to the side, eyeing him.

"I don't; it was scribbled on a sheet of notebook paper I found on the school cafeteria floor. Well, I _saw_ someone drop it, then I picked it up and read it. Personally, I thought it was kinda nice."

"D' you still have it?" Vern asked.

"Have what?"

"That paper."

"No." Actually, Chris _did_ still have it; he just hid it pretty well, even I don't where he hid it yet, though I keep searching his room to no avail. It's only a matter of time before_ he_ forgets where he put it. Hopefully Eyeball won't beat either of us to it, 'cause he'd probably burn it and laugh if he did.

"Girls with hair that doesn't fall under red, black, brown, or blonde but nontheless gorgeous?"

"Cindy, Jacklynn, and Debbie-"

"Who also hangs out with Lou and Sam."

"Girls who aren't pretty until you really think about it: Cathleen, Sophie, Jimmie-"

"Also hangs out with Lou and Sam. Lou and Sam, might as well call 'em the Dynamic Duo, but that title's taken."

"Yup, Batman and Robin did beat 'em to the punchline." Vern put his cigarette back in his mouth, for moments of silence were vital after giving a list of names of girls whom you thought were cute.

Back to the girls.

"I mean, all they dream about is the physical stuff. How wrong is that?" Lou ranted.

"So?" Debbie inquired, sucking on a PEZ.

"So? It beats the whole meaning of being in love, which is why I'm never gonna go for it!"

"Oh God, not this again." Jimmie muttered irritably to Sam, who simply nodded and watched.

"I am the _queen_ of Tomboys, and this queen shall die a _virgin_!" Lou stood up on the bench triumphantly, mimicking a proud air. Debbie stared at her.

"You do realize you're being completely ridiculous right now." she said to the Tomboy queen.

"Yeah, but I'm just saying it's never gonna happen-" Lou jumped down from the bench "-in a _radical_ kind of way."

"You, my friend, are the _definition_ of radical." Debbie stated, folding her arms across her ribcage. "But I love 'ya anyways."

"Aw, I'm touched. _Group hug_!"

"Oh God no." Jimmie managed to stiffle out before being forced into a tight embrace with her three friends. Vern watched them.

"How come _we _can't have a group hug?" Vern whined. Teddy stared at him, while Chris stifled a laugh and Gordie rolled his eyes.

"What?"

Alright readers, Chapter 7 will be up soon, I promise! Just be a tad bit patient with me, cuz I don't do well under pressure. Thanks for reading, bye!


	7. Ace of Hearts

"Okay, raise your hand your hand if you want a 7UP!" Debbie held out the green bottles, which were snatched out of her hands by Sam and Jimmie almost immediately.

"Who wants Coke?" Debbie asked.

Lou gestured for Debbie to give her a bottle. Handing her the bottle, Debbie rolled her eyes.

"Sheesh, can't you guys just get them from the cartons yourselves? I mean, since when am I slave of the world?" She got no response, only the gulps and gargles coming from her friends as they poured the refreshments down their throats.

It was Friday night, so the girls were having a sleepover at Debbie's.

"So, what do you gals want to do?"

"I don't care, just as long as we don't play salon again. I swear, if you ever restrain me and cover my face in makeup again, I'll take it to the authorities." Lou muttered irritably.

"Hey, you didn't look _that_ bad!" Debbie protested, but Lou just shook her head.

"Sorry, Debbie, it's not going to happen."

"Alright, then, what about _Truth or Dare_?"

Groans issued from the three other girls.

"C'mon, we can't sit here for hours doing _nothing_! The instruments are locked in the basement, if you haven't noticed, and most of the board games are locked inside Gerry's bedroom!"

Gerry was Debbie's second oldest sister, although she was very pretty, she tended to be a little obnoxious sometimes.

"Well, let's go find Gerry and ask her for them." Jimmie suggested.

"No chance of that; she's locked inside her room; she's getting ready for her date tonight." Debbie drawled.

"Hey, Debs, can I get go get a snack from the kitchen? I'm kind of hungry, and I didn't eat since 5:00." Lou ran her hand over her stomach, which grumbled. The clock read 6:54.

"Sure, I'll go with you." Debbie pulled on her bathrobe and walked out of the room with Lou.

They reached the kitchen, which was warm and laden with food nearly everywhere.

"God, I _love_ your kitchen." Lou murmured dreamily as she hugged a bag of chocolate chip cookies. She proceeded to pulling a box of graham crackers, a bag of marshmallows, and a package of big HERSHEY'S chocolate bars out of the cabinet.

"Hey, don't eat all of it." Debbie giggled as she grabbed napkins and moist wipes to take upstairs.

The doorbell rang. Debbie and Lou froze in mid-step just as they were about to make their way upstairs. Lou turned to her friend.

"You didn't invite anyone else, did you?"

Debbie shook her head.

"Must be Gerry's date," she said.

Slowly, the two girls walked through the foyer and stopped before the front door. Debbie paused, and then she took in a deep breath and pulled the front door open.

A young man in his late teens was standing on Debbie's front porch. He had messy blond hair that was casually combed off the left. He was vested in a leather jacket, a black T-shirt, belted blue jeans, and heavy duty black boots. He had a cigarette in his mouth and had a come-and-get-it look on his face that intrigued Debbie's senses completely. Even Lou was slightly fascinated by this man.

"Where's your sister?" he asked in a rough voice while blowing puffs of smoke.

"Huh? Oh right." Debbie turned around and yelled up the stairs.

"Gerry!"

"_I'm coming!_"

Debbie's sister came running down the stairs. She was tall and skinny, with chestnut hair that came down to her mid-back and hazel eyes. She was dressed in a risqué fashion; a slightly low-cut V-neck shirt and black jeans.

"Hey, Ace." A smile crept onto Gerry's face as she approached the man and wrapped her arms around him.

"Debbie, I'll be back at 11:00. If you need anything, _don't _try to reach me." She smirked and held up her bedroom key to Debbie's horror.

"Bye!"

The door closed.

"Your sister's going out with _Ace Merrill_?"

"Yeah, what's wrong with that?"

Lou got a look in her eyes.

"Listen, Debbie, I know it isn't my business to intrude on what goes on between you and your sisters, but be careful."

"Careful? What do you-?"

"Debbie, this guy is a demon; a devil from hell; whatever you do, don't try to get involved with him in any way; he's bound to do something. According to what my brothers said-!"

"Hey Lou, thanks for the concern, but I'll be fine. I'm not going to go anywhere close enough that I'll get hurt."

"That's not what I meant. I-never mind." Lou mumbled, shaking her head.

"Even though we _didn't _get the key to Gerry's room, I think I've still got Monopoly."

"Monopoly, yay!" Lou practically jumped for joy, but her happy face didn't stay for long.

During the Monopoly games, she was in deep thought, and Jimmie had to keep nudging her when it was her turn to roll.

"Truth or Dare!"

"Oh God no," Lou groaned, shaking her head and putting it in her hands.

"Why must we be the innocent victims of the wrath of Debbieness?" Sam grumbled.

"Debbieness?" Jimmie gave her a questioning look.

"You know what I mean," Sam stated.

"Alright to make you guys happy, _I'll_ go first." Debbie sighed. "Okay, I'm ready."

"Debbie, truth or dare?" Sam asked.

"Dare!" Debbie said quite enthusiastically.

"I dare you to say that we can stop playing and that we can delay this game two summers from now." Lou said craftily with a smirk on her face.

Debbie looked furious, but eventually gave in.

"_Alright_," she mumbled, "we can stop playing now and we'll resume two summers from now, but that time, _there will be boys_."

Sam looked to Lou, who looked to Jimmie, who looked Sam before taking an anxious bite out of a smores sandwich.

"Fine."

Okay readers, I'll try to update soon, but I can't promise anything. Thanks for reading my stuff and keep checking for updates! Bye!

-Becky


	8. Pepper Spray and Scat

"So you have a crush on Jason Matthews?"

"Shut up; it's embarrassing!"

Debbie and Sam were sitting in the bathroom, with Debbie wielding a hair straightener.

Sam fidgeted with her fingers as the device rolled though her hair.

"I don't know about this, Debbie. My mom will throw a fit and never let me step foot into your house again."

"Don't worry, you'll look great; trust me."

"Sometimes I find that very hard to do." Sam sighed, rolling her eyes and just let Debbie continue.

Jimmie was sitting on a stool in Debbie's room, and she was daydreaming about throwing the boys at school out of the classroom window.

"Jimmie? Jimmie!" Lou snapped her fingers in front of Jimmie's face.

"Hmm, what do you want?"

"I was asking you something."

"What?"

"What do you think the boys at school are doing right now? And _please _don't say that they're throwing each other out the window." Lou stated quietly.

"Observant, aren't you?"

"I might be a tomboy who doesn't really care 'bout much, but I can observe, and I can observe _good_."

"You mean well."

"You know what I mean!"

Jimmie shrugged.

"I wouldn't say throwing. I'd say… 'Falling'…."

Lou stared at her for a moment, and then sighed.

"I'm just wondering, what's going to happen when boys actually try to involve themselves in our lives? I mean, when they get off the football field and shamefully try to flirt with all of the girls in our class, including us?"

Jimmie thought for awhile before answering.

"Then there will be a shortage of pepper spray in all the stores."

"True."

The boys were at that moment in the treehouse, playing scat as usual, huddling around the small table, which was dimly lit by a flashlight that was hanging over their heads.

"I knock."

"Can't we ever play anything other than scat?"

"Poker's no fun without cash and PEZ."

"That's true."

Gordie, Chris, Teddy, and Vern were up in the tree house playing cards.

"Plus, poker's no fun without any eye candy watching." Teddy wiggled his eyebrows suggestively, Vern snickered and Chris rolled his eyes while Gordie hid his face in a comic book.

"Well, let's go see what they're up to, then." Vern said, but was greeted by stares of utter disbelief from his friends.

"Vern, are you out of your mind?" Chris asked him incredulously. "Seriously, its night; no girl's going to be out walking after dark."

"Yeah, but what about-no, wait-never mind." Vern shook his head and returned his eyes to his cards.

"Okay, so Teddy, you said that you were gonna try to ask Kathy out?"

"Yeah, I figure that I should get my gals while I'm still young and-"

"You made your point, so you don't have to go _there_," Chris commented.

"Fine, but Chris, you might as well start asking chicks out too." Teddy looked to Gordie and Vern. "Any ideas for Chris?"

"How about Jimmie?"

"Nah, I don't really think she's really Chris' type. Speaking of which, what _is _your type, Chris?"

Teddy turned to Chris for an answer. Chris just raised and lowered his shoulders.

"Aw, he's shy." Teddy said with a wink. Chris shook his head, a smile on his face appeared as blush bloomed on his cheeks.

"But the big question is…" Vern said, "…who does _Gordie _like?"

They turned to Gordie, whose eyes immediately shot up. He watched them over the top of his comic book.

"Gordie, who is it?"

"Yeah, Gordo, tell us!"

They began punching him in the arms and tugging at his cheeks.

"Stop it."

They just kept going.

"C'mon, guys, cut it out!"

The punches and tugs kept coming and coming.

"Alright, for the love of mother-fucking God, I'll tell you!"

Like magic, they immediately stopped.

"Okay," Chris slowly asked, "who is it?"

Gordie looked down at his feet for awhile, obviously regretting his choice, and then looked up.

"Your mom."

"Seriously, c'mon Gordo." Vern kicked Gordie's leg.

"Alright! You want to know who she is? I'll tell you!"

Gordie paused, and then let the following words slide out of his mouth.

"It's Debbie."

The boys looked at each other.

"AAAAAAAW!!!!'  
They resumed pinching his cheeks and punching him.

"That is SO cute!!!"

"Debbie and Gordie!"

"Invite me to your wedding, why don't you?" Gordie grumbled, rather annoyed.

This only encouraged his friends. They then began singing a rather familiar tune, though slightly explicitly altered.

_Debbie and Gordie_

_Sitting in the tree_

_S-C-R-E-W-I-N-G-_

"Aw, shut up!"

"I don't shut up, I grow up! And when I look at you, I throw up! Bleh!" Chris, Teddy, and Vern chanted together.

Gordie rolled his eyes.

You know you guys really piss me off sometimes," he muttered.

Once, Teddy recovered from excessive laughter, he pat his friend on the back.

"Good job, Gordo; well done. I am proud that my knowledge of girlishness has rubbed off on you."

"What are you talking about, Teddy? You know nothing about girls." Chris said.

"Aw yeah? Prove me wrong."

"I can't." Chris shrugged.

"Exactly." Teddy leaned back and blew puffs of smoke into the air.

"But Gordie, isn't your brother Denny going out with one of Debbie's sisters?" Vern asked.

"Um, yeah, I think so."

Indeed, Jane Miller _was _in a relationship with Dennis LaChance.

"So you _can't _ask Debbie out!" Vern exclaimed.

"What are you talking about, Vern?"

"Imagine if Denny and Jane get married, wouldn't be a bit weird if his younger brother marries someone from the same direct family?"

"Hmm, he's got a good point," Teddy frowned while rubbing his chin.

"Well, just wait to see what happens, I guess." Chris lifted a cigarette to his mouth, pondering about what to do in such a situation.

"Teddy?"

"What?"

"You don't really like Kathy."

Teddy turned to look straight at him.

"Yeah, so? Got a damn problem with that?"

"So you're only going to ask her out for kicks." Chris said, eyeing the bespectacled boy disapprovingly.

"Damn right." Teddy stretched a hand to his neck and massaged his tanned skin.

"You shallow bastard." Gordie mumbled, and his friends burst into laughter.

Gordie thought to himself, wondering many things at the same time.

_What does it really mean to be in love? What's the difference between love and lust? Why are so many males solely consumed by lust, while females are enveloped by romantic feelings anytime they're around someone special? Why-?_

"Hey, Gordo."

"Hmm?" Gordie looked up.

"You okay?" Chris asked, obviously concerned for his friend.

"Yeah, just thinking." Gordie replied.

Chris looked at him for awhile before dealing the cards again.

Okay readers, hopefully you liked this chapter, and if you didn't, sue me. No, don't; I need to pay for extortion next week, you'd be surprised how many times I've been threatened to pay money. Anyways, my piggy bank is nearly empty, so please don't sue. Please review this goddamned thing so we can all get on with our lives! Sorry, _but no soy muy paciente_. I promise to update soon, so keep checking every now and then. Thanks for reading!

-Bloody hearts, Becky


	9. Lou as Bettie a bad thing? Or good?

"Cowabunga!" Debbie jumped onto Lou, whose face hit the floor with a _thud_. Lou tried to wriggle free, but she was turned over and strapped to a chair with a belt. She sighed.

"Do we have to go through this every time we have a sleepover?" Lou asked, rolling her eyes as Sam began applying light blush to her friend's face.

The three of them, Debbie, Jimmie, and Sam, nodded in unison.

So, for the next fifteen minutes, Lou received painfully excruciating torture that no tomboy should ever endure.

Back to the boys.

"So, do you guys wanna go walk around?" Chris suggested.

"I'm staying right here." Teddy sat back in chair, contemplating his cards.

"I-I don't think we should go," Vern stuttered, "t-there might be muggers out looking for prey, or worse, the Cobras looking for somebody to pick a bone with, or-"

"I don't care, besides we have nothing better to do." Gordie shrugged.

Teddy slammed down his cards on the table.

"Okay, LaChance, you've proven your point. Let's go." He began gathering the cards and stacking them into a deck in order to put them back in the box.

"You comin', Vern?"

Vern shook his head.

"Uh-uh; I don't want no trouble."

"Okay, Vern-O, suit yourself. Have fun staying in the tree house _all by yourself_."

Vern whimpered and scrambled to his feet after his friends, whom had already begun climbing down the ladder. As a result, he lost balance on the limp wood and fell.

"Smooth." Teddy smiled evilly as Vern got to his knees, dusting the dirt from his front.

They began walking back through the trees towards the town.

Back to the girls.

"I'm serious, why do you always have to do this to me?" Lou whimpered as Debbie continued running a brush through her hair. Jimmie kept Lou's head in check with her hands as Sam applied a mild shade of lipstick.

"Open your eyes now. To be perfectly honest, you don't look that bad." Debbie said, putting down the brush and untying the belt.

"No! I don't want to!" Nevertheless she did.

"I look horrible."

"You look nice"

"I look like Bettie Page."

"Who the hell is Bettie Page?" Sam asked curiously.

"She's a nude model in my brothers' dirty magazines." Lou mumble, burying her face in her hands in shame.

"How dirty exactly?"

"_Playboy_."

"Wow."

Debbie thought about it for a moment, and then looked back at Lou.

"That might not necessarily be entirely a bad thing."

"What're you talking about, Debs? These women sell themselves in the most explicit fashion! They're only a couple steps away from prostitution! They-!"

"Shut up and listen to what I have to say before you keep rambling on and on." Debbie snapped.

Lou opened her mouth to object, but then closed it.

"Hugh Hefner and the other perverted jerks pick women for their publications because they're beautiful, and they want to share that beauty with other men, even if it is showing them completely without-"

"You can stop there." Jimmie said, biting into a cookie.

"What I'm trying to say is that Bettie is a pretty woman, and if you look like that Bettie whatever-her-last-name- is, then that must mean you are too."

"That I'm what?"

"A pretty girl! My God, you can be so close-minded sometimes."

Lou shook her head in disbelief.

"Um, no; I'm a tomboy, not a-"

"Before you say anything else, we're gonna go out. Get your jackets, girls." Debbie pulled on a jeans jacket.

"What? Why?" Sam asked.

"You know, just for a walk. It's not too late; it's only 7:23."

The other girls shrugged and pulled on their own jackets.

"Let's sing the Mickey Mouse Club song!" Sam jumped up and down.

"Oh what the hell!" Jimmie shouted, only because she was half drunk off sugar.

_Who's the leader of the club  
That's made for you and me  
M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E  
Hey! there, Hi! there, Ho! there  
You're as welcome as can be  
M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E _

Mickey Mouse!

Mickey Mouse!

Forever let us hold our banner  
High! High! High! High!  


Back to the boys.

"So, where exactly are we going?" Gordie asked Chris.

"It doesn't really matter, just as long as-"

"Shh! D' you hear that?"

"Hear what?"

_  
Come along and sing a song  
And join the jamboree!  
M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E _

Mickey Mouse club  
We'll have fun  
We'll be new faces  
High! High! High! High!  


"What the hell is _that_?" Vern asked nervously.

"Ghosts, spirits that yearn to haunt the world with songs and shouts and moans! Oh my!" Teddy added the last part as a way to mock the Wizard of Oz.

Chris stared at him for a moment before directing his attention back to the singing.

_  
We'll do things and  
We'll go places  
All around the world  
We'll go marching  
_

Back to the girls.

_  
Who's the leader of the club  
That's made for you and me  
M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E  
Hey! there, Hi! there, Ho! there  
You're as welcome as can be  
M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E  
_

"Take the solo, Jimmie!" Lou shouted. Jimmie nodded._  
_

_Mickey Mouse! _

Mickey Mouse!

Forever let us hold our banner  
High! High! High! High!

Come along and sing a song- 

Suddenly there was an aggressive noise in the bushes and figures pounced onto the girls, pinning them to the ground.

"Ack! Help! Bloody murder! Gruesome rape! Diabolical-!" Sam screamed before Chris pressed a finger against her mouth.

"Shh, it's just us." He retracted himself from the girl, who was now sprawled on the hard cement.

"Well, sorry, but we couldn't exactly see your faces. It's after dark, for Christ's sake!" Jimmie complained.

"Where's the pepper spray when you need it, Jimmie?" Lou managed to let out from under Teddy's form.

"Aw shut up."

"Here, let me turn on my light." Gordie fumbled with a flashlight before it illuminated them all.

"That song gets really annoying sometimes," he muttered, helping Jimmie to her feet.

"Well, we were bored and walking around in the middle of nowhere. What were we supposed to do?" Debbie retorted.

Vern shrugged, and then noticed something.

"Hey Lou? Is it me or do you look…different?"

"It wasn't my idea." Lou muttered, hanging her head in shame, and also hoping to hide the way she looked.

"Hang on, lemme see." Teddy reached out a hand and lifted Lou's chin. His jaw dropped.

"I look terrible, seriously I know already." Lou complained, trying to look away.

_How could you say that? _Teddy thought to himself as his eyes searched her face. _You look so beautiful! _

Her hair, which was usually held in a ponytail, hung down and was glossy, the blush on her cheeks defined her facial features, and the rouge on her lips made Teddy just want to-

"Wow! Little Lou's turned from tomboy to-!"

"Watch it, Duchamp. Little Lou can break your nose if you're not careful." Lou held up a fist. Teddy shook his head, grinning like a cat.

"Ah, same old Lou, just a tad more like a movie star." He draped an arm over her shoulder and gazed right into her face. Lou blushed at this comment, then shook off the blush and loosened herself from Teddy's grip. Teddy's face fell a bit.

All of a sudden, a greedy feeling came over Teddy. He wanted to touch her face, feel her soft skin, just anything to feel the warmth emaciating from the girl.

"Debbie, what've you done? Now these guys are gonna gog at me at school now that they've seen me like this!" Lou complained.

"No they won't. Will you?" Debbie looked to the boys.

"Um, well-" they began stuttering, but they finish their sentences before Jimmie looked them all straight in the eye.

"Listen to me, you hooligans. If you don't say "yes," then I'm gonna go back to a sleepover with Lou worrying about what all the assholes at school will think if you spread this to them. She'll get angsty, and I won't get to sleep, and I get crabby when I don't get my sleep. So, if I come to school with dark circles under my eyes, then there will be blood, and it won't be from suicide attempts."

The boys looked to each other nervously, and then nodded.

"Okay, not a word." they agreed.

"It better stay that way, or you might wake up one day and find yourselves strangled to death in your beds." Sam giggled at Jimmie's remark.

Hope you guys like it!

-Becky


	10. Debbie's Mistake no duh it's her fault

Author's note:

Well, here's Chapter 10, hope you guys like it. By the way, if any of you don't remember, Clyde is Sam's ouija board. If you don't know what a ouija board is, then look it up on Wikipedia or Google or some other search engine. 

Warning: Mild dream-rape sequence close to the end of the chapter, so don't let your little siblings see it!!

-Becky

Back at Debbie's house

"Thanks a lot, Debbie! Why didn't you just drag me outside and have me strip for their amusement?!" 

"What? What did I do?" Debbie asked, not understanding the reason for the tone of sarcasm in Lou's voice.

"You know _exactly _what you did: you've ruined my respectable reputation as a tomboy!" Lou snapped bitterly.

"Um, Lou, _what_ reputation? None of the women in this town take you seriously. As for the men, well, they don't really care-"

"Get it into your frickin' stupid head of orchestrated curls that maybe I don't care whether they take me seriously or not."

The earlier part had hit Debbie hard: she turned pale, and then her cheeks progressively turned red in anger.

"My head is _not _stupid, and my curls are not conducted like a symphony; they're just naturally like that." She claimed all the while stroking the curls stopping just below her shoulders.

"Ask R- I mean, you-know-who, what he thinks of them; I'm sure he'll just go and say that they're the most beautiful curls he has ever seen in his life, then kneel down on his knees and ask you to be his." Lou said mockingly with a smile.

"Okay, Lou: I won't manicure up your face again-well maybe before parties and bops-but just as long as you stop tormenting me about _him_!" 

"Okay Debs, you've got a deal, but just don't overdo it-" 

"Besides, the boys thought you looked nice, and personally, I'm impressed with your beauty capability."

She leaned in and whispered something that made the hair on Lou's back stand up.

"_Teddy couldn't take his eyes off you, could he_?" 

Lou's face blanched, and then she bolted out of Debbie's bedroom to the bathroom down the hall. Jimmie approached Debbie, who was watching as Lou ran in through the bathroom door, where prominent gagging noises and the sound of running water could be heard. Obviously, Lou was quite disgusted by what Debbie had just reminded her of.

"Deb, do you _know _what you've just done?"

"No; what have I done?" Debbie asked curiously.

Out off nowhere, Jimmie brought out a balled fist and socked the top of Debbie's head.

"Ow! That hurt! What the hell was that for?!"

"You idiot: now she's gonna be raped in her nightmares thanks to you and your big mouth!"

"Oh, don't exaggerate."

"Trust me; I'm not."

Debbie opened her mouth, and then closed it in a sigh. 

"I just hope that it doesn't interfere with her train of thought," Sam said worriedly as she sat back down, this time in front of Clyde, the Ouija Board. An idea came in through her thoughts.

"Hey guys, come over here so we can ask Clyde a couple things."

Jimmie and Debbie glanced at each other before nodding and sitting down on Debbie's rose carpeted-floor. 

Jimmie switched off the lamp, causing Clyde to glow in the dark. The three girls anxiously pressed their fingers to the triangular planchette. 

"Hi Clyde, how are you?" 

The tab moved across the board several times, spelling _F-I-N-E._

"Okay Clyde, we got several questions for you," Debbie took a deep breath before asking "was showing Lou all fixed up to the boys a good idea?"

The tab moved again, spelling _O-F-C-O-U-R-S-E-N-O-T-Y-O-U-D-I-M-W-I-T._

Debbie looked rather offended, but Sam continued.

"Just by looking at her, did Teddy want to do stuff with Lou, like making out?"

_D-U-H. _

Debbie then went into a clean fit of giggles as a look of utter disgust made its way onto Jimmie's face.

Then the Ouija Board moved of its own accord; it was _not_ asked a question this time. 

It spelled _D-R-E-A-M-S-O-F-R-A-P-E-A-R-E-H-I-G-H-L-Y-P-R-O-B-A-B-L-E._

"Hmm," Jimmie muttered, "is this all Debbie's fault?"

In less than five seconds, the dial moved to the YES. Sam was beginning to get really nervous.

"Will these dreams be _very _real, as in she'll wake up sweating and shit?" she asked, while the moisture was building up between her fingertips and the dial. 

The answer was bone-chilling; _MORE REAL AND MORE TERRIFYING THAN YOU COULD EVER IMAGINE_ (A.N.: I'm not putting dashes between the letters here 'cause it would take too long, and it would take forever for you guys to decipher it).

The three girls looked to each other, and then all of a sudden began screaming bloody murder (not literally, and _yes_, Jimmie screamed this time).

The door burst open, and Lou ran in with her toothbrush in her mouth.

"Wos' hoppineeng'?" she asked, her mouth full of toothpaste.

"_What?!_"

Realizing her mistake, Lou sped back to the bathroom, spat out the toothpaste, rinsed her mouth, and then bolted back to Debbie's room.

"What happened?"

"Oh, so that's what you said." Sam remarked.

"No duh, so what the hell is going on in here?"

"N-nothing," Debbie started, "it's just that Clyde said that-"

"-Clyde said that Mr. Tomato-Head wants to make out with Miss Lemon-Lime!" Sam completed before Debbie could say anything possibly taintful.

Lou stared at the three girls huddled together, eyeing her intently as if she was a goldfish in a bowl.

"Guess we should put Clyde back now." Debbie was about to put Clyde back in his cardboard box, but Lou stopped her.

"Hang on," she stated with a slightly stern tone in her voice, "lemme ask Clyde a little something."

She sat down and pressed her fingertips onto the dial, nodding for Jimmie to do the same. Jimmie did so reluctantly.

"Hey, Clyde, are they telling me the truth?"

The dial quickly moved to the NO.

"Hmm," she glanced up at her friends, whom were looking extremely uneasy, "can you give me one word associated with what they were talking about?"

The dial moved to spell _B-E-D-S-E-X_. 

Lou's jaw dropped, and then she just shook her head, not wanting to discuss the subject any further.

"Okay, moving on from that awkward matter, is there anything you want to say to Jimmie right now, and if so, what?"

The dial moved around the board to spell _I-S-T-I-L-L-L-O-V-E-Y-O-U_.

The reaction was almost immediate; Jimmie yelled in shock as her friends burst out laughing, clutching their sides and gasping for air.

"You stupid Goddamned board!" Jimmie cried out, throwing herself onto her sleeping bag, burying her face into her pillow as the others continued laughing.

Debbie glanced at her clock, which now read 11:42 PM.

"Let's go to sleep; I'm kind of tired," she said as she slid into her sleeping bag.

"Goodnight, everyone," Lou whispered softly.

"'Night," Jimmie mumbled.

"Sweet dreams and happy thoughts," Sam chuckled.

"Now I'm gonna have nightmares," Jimmie rolled her eyes.

Lou snickered as she poked Jimmie at the back of the head.

"Ouch."

"Hey, Sam?" Debbie rolled onto her side.

"Yeah?"

"D' you think that _he_ likes me? 'Cause the other day I had to walk alone and he offered to walk me halfway."

"It's possible; to tell you the truth I really don't know." Sam muttered as her eyelids fluttered closed.

As for Lou, her head was spinning with thoughts and recollections. Her mind soon became dizzy, so it was rather easy for her to quickly drift off to sleep…

_She was all alone in a __forest, and then a voice spoke up from behind her._

_"Lou."_

_It was bone chilling and for some reason familiar._

_All of a sudden she was pushed against a tree and a cloth was shoved into her mouth. As she reached to remove it, the aggressor had seized her wrists and quickly tied them together, shortly later tying them to the trunk above her head._

_It was too dark for her to recognize who it was. She felt scared and endangered. _

_The person unbuttoned Lou's shirt and pulled down her pants below her knees, and as the person approached Lou, she realized what was going to happen. _

_Before she could fight it off in any way, however, the person immediately positioned themselves and pushed into her repeatedly. As it became more painful and things around her became fuzzier, maniacal laughter erupted from the rapist as he continued to torture Lou endlessly at the hands of his reckless and selfish lust…_

Lou shot up and began breathing heavily, nearly almost hyperventilating. She felt the back of the neck; it was sweaty. Massaging her neck, she gulped and gasped for air. As she adjusted into a more comfortable, a sharp sting went through her legs, as if they had been severely electrocuted. 

_I'll probably forget about it in the morning if I go back to sleep_, she thought to herself as she rolled onto her side and closed her eyes, although this time it was harder for her to rid herself of the haunting voice that was echoing through her mind.

_Lou. Lou. Lou, come back to me. Come back. Come back, _it taunted her as she grasped the side of her head as an attempt to force the sound out of her mind. She was scared that this might actually be a real person, and there was only one person who it could have possibly been; Teddy Duchamp. 


	11. Teddy, a rapist? Hell no!

Author's Note: I know this is pretty quick for an update, but there have been a lot of _complaints_ about Teddy supposedly being the rapist in Lou's nightmare in the previous chapter. YES YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE!! So anyways, I just wanted to thank all of you who commented on my story so far, so give yourslves a pat on the back! Hope you enjoy the chapter!

-Becky

Late March, 1959.

Lou only had the dream once, but it was basically enough to scare her plain shitless. It raised several questions in her head, but as she answered one, it raised so many others.

"Is Teddy really a rapist?" she thought to herself during English class. Looking down at her paper, her eyes nearly popped out of her head; she had scrawled down her thoughts in big, bold letters on the blue lines.

"Oh shit," she muttered to herself before realizing that she could start anew her response on a different sheet of paper. So she tore it into several small pieces and hurled them into the trash can.

Suddenly a ruler slammed onto Lou's desk. She looked up. Mrs. Simons was staring sternly down at her, making the hairs stand up on Lou's back: she never liked this teacher; she was nearly always giving off bad vibes.

"Do not use that kind of language in my classroom, _Louise_."

At the sound of her real name being used, Lou felt as if she could have killed old lady Simons just for that. But she just nodded and resumed her answer on another sheet of paper.

"Yes, ma'am." Lou _hated_ her, but she wasn't the only one ever since Sam came barging into Debbie's basement.

Earlier in 1958.

"Guys!" Sam could have tumbled down the stairs; she was running so fast.

"Sammy, what's going on? What's the matter?" Lou asked with a tone of anxiety.

Sam sunk onto a couch, catching her breath.

"Chris was the one who stole milk money-"

"-Aha; I knew it was him!"

"Shut up Debbie, you don't know even half of the story!" Sam looked furious at Debbie's sudden interjection.

"He took it, but he tried to give it back!"

"He did?" Jimmie sat up, obviously interested.

"Yeah, he did, but," Sam's voice got choked up and she looked like she was about to cry, "I saw Mrs. Simons coming out of the tailor's with a shopping bag. She threw away the receipt, so I picked it up and…" her voice trailed off as she handed Jimmie the receipt.

Jimmie read the receipt, and then several seconds later her face twisted into a look of disgust.

"The bitch; she used the milk money to buy a stupid skirt."

"What do you think we should do?" Debbie asked.

"I don't think there's anything we _can_ do," Lou said, wishing with all of her heart that she could test out Jimmie's Many Methods of Torture List.

_I was a being a complete and utter pansy, but we didn't have enough evidence to support Chris's innocence. Even if we showed them the receipt it wouldn't have done anything. _Lou finished writing her answer and put it on the pile of papers on Mrs. Simons' desk. A few minutes later, the bell rang; it was time for recess and lunch.

Walking down the hallway, Lou realized something.

"THE RAPIST DIDN'T HAVE GLASSES!!"

Kids in the hallway turned to stare at her and the teachers eyed her disapprovingly, but she was ignorant to all of this because she began running down the hallway like a madman, knocking down a fat kid and a couple nerds as she sped past at the speed of a cheetah.

"Sorry!" She yelled back as she continued running through the doors to reach her friends, whom were sitting on a bench eating lunch.

"Guys! It wasn't Teddy in my dream! It was someone else!"

"What?! Hang on, rewind a bit, so you're saying that it's someone else?" Sam asked.

"Um, yeah," Lou replied, gasping for air.

"Wait, how do you know this?" Debbie asked.

"It couldn't have been Teddy 'cause he didn't have those thick glasses on! Teddy can't see shit without his glasses, and this guy was expertly tying these professional hardcore knots and working with buttons and a zipper. So, Teddy couldn't have done it."

"I couldn't do what?"

Lou froze, and then turned around to face Teddy.

"Hi Ted. We were just, um, making a bet that, uh, you couldn't-"

"-that you couldn't down a whole bottle of Tabasco red pepper sauce." Jimmie grinned like an evil child.

Teddy stared at them for a moment, and then called out to the rest of the students at recess.

"Hey guys and girls, pals and gals, watch as I, Teddy Duchamp the Great, down a whole Tabasco bottle."

Like magic, all of the kids swarmed around the bench to watch.

Jimmie handed him the bottle, looking doubtfully at Teddy as he uncapped the bottle.

"He's gonna cave, I'm sure of it." Jimmie said to herself.

"Don't be too sure, Jimmie, 'cause the guy is kind of loco, and he's used to higher levels of heat." Sam whispered to Jimmie.

Teddy was about to bring the bottle to his lips, but then he stopped.

"What do I get if I _win_?"

"What do we get if you _lose_?"

"Hmm, if I lose, then I have to down _five_ bottles of Tabasco in _June_,and if I win, then…" Glancing at Lou, he leaned in and whispered something into Debbie's ear. Debbie glanced at Lou in turn, and then nodded.

As Teddy brought the bottle up to his lips, Lou grabbed Debbie by the shoulders.

"_What did you promise him?!_"

"_I can't tell you!_"

Lou shook her head and turned to watch Teddy. He was nervously guzzling down the burgundy contents down his throat. When the bottle was empty, he threw it to the ground.

"Ha! I did it, Jimmie! Beat that!" Teddy shouted out and began dancing his victory dance, which involves imitating Elvis's "special" moves, and nearly all of the girls screamed in delight.

"Idiot," Jimmie muttered, and Lou shook her head.

"He's gonna heat up. Teddy, you're gonna freakin' heat up!"

Teddy's face suddenly turned red, and he jumped off the bench and grabbed the Coca-Cola bottle sitting on somebody's abandoned lunch tray. He gulped it down and sighed, massaging the back of his neck casually while friends were dealing bet wins and bet losses.

"Why can't you tell me, Debbie? Usually you're the one spilling information and gossip to us, but now you've sealed your lips against us?" Lou later asked her friend.

"Just you," Debbie corrected, "Teddy asked me to do him a favor, and I have to keep the favor secret from you, otherwise it totally beats the point."

"Is it something weird?"

"I can't tell you."

"Is it something perverted?"

"I just told you; _I can't tell you!_"

"It _is _something perverted, isn't it?!"

"Like I said, I can't tell you."

"Yeah, calm down Lou; you're getting all paranoid." Sam commented.

"I know, but it's just the way that they make it sound that makes me paranoid, I mean, even though we've confirmed that Teddy _wasn't_ the guy in my dream, he could still be a pervert."

"Teddy _is _a pervert, _all_ men are perverts." Jimmie stated.

"And we're back to the 'they'll push you down and rape you in an alley if you're not careful,' I suppose," Sam suggested, which Lou nodded to.

Around five minutes later, Jimmie said "Here comes my cousin."

"What?!" Debbie suddenly went into a frantic. "How do I look? Is my skirt straight? Do I have a pimple on my nose? Oh my God, if I have a pimple and you don't warn me-!"

"Calm down, Debbie. Wait, is Jason _with_ _him_?" Sam inquired anxiously.

Debbie nodded, and Sam immediately went into a similar frantic, asking pretty much the same questions.

"Hi Deborah," a chocolate-like voice greeted her.

Debbie froze, and then she managed to work up the courage to put a small smile on her face.

"Um, hi," she said shyly as she stood up from the bench to come face to face with a boy of little over average height with mousy brown hair and hazel-like eyes.

Ray Brower put his books down on the bench and put his hands in his pockets.

"Um, nice day, isn't it?"

"Yeah, pretty nice for early spring."

Lou, rather disturbed by the lovey-dovey action occurring, decided to walk to the other side of the playground to talk with Gordie.

"Listen, Deborah-"

"You can call me Debbie."

"Well, Debbie, I, um, was wondering if you wanted to meet with me this Saturday at the Blue Point. Is that okay, or do you have plans?"

"No, no I don't have plans. What time do you have in mind?"

"Around 1:00 in the afternoon."

"Okay, so I guess I'll see you then."

"Great," Ray flashed a smile, "bye."

"Bye." Once Ray and Jason were done, Debbie sank back onto the bench.

"I'm in love." She smiled to herself.

At that moment, Lou was engaging in an earnest conversation with Gordie.

"Hey dude, it's okay, you'll find another girl." Lou was fully aware of Gordie's infatuation for Debbie, and had no problem with it.

"I suppose," he muttered while crushing ants with his fingers, imagining that they were all factors of Ray winning Debbie's heart.

"Hey Gordo, do _you_ know anything about what Teddy told Debbie to do?"

Gordie nodded, but he refused to give any more information. Lou groaned in frustration; it seems that everybody knew but her.

"What have I done to deserve this?" she sighed, resting her chin on her palms. "Then again I should be thankful that Teddy can't be classified as a rapist."

Gordie looked at her, and then burst out laughing. Lou smiled a bit; it was nice to know that her anxiety made somebody cheer up.


	12. Why Do Fools Fall In Love?

Author's Note: Okay, first, the song featured is Why Do Fools Fall in Love by Frankie Lymon. Second, you guys can send me PMs guessing what agreement was established between Teddy and Debbie. Third, thanks for the comments and the views!

-Becky

"Whew, is it the end of March already? Man, now school's gonna go by so fast we won't realize that it's June until the last bell rings. We'll be free!" Vern exclaimed.

"Can't wait for summer when I can actually do stuff with Denny," Gordie said excitedly.

"What're you gonna do this summer, Teddy?" Chris questioned his bespectacled friend.

"It's not a question of _what_, but of _whom_." Teddy murmured hungrily, which caused the boys to all laugh like a bunch of idiots (well, boys always do).

"What're you guys talking about?" The four boys turned around to come face to face with Lou, Sam, Debbie, and Jimmie. They snickered a bit before replying.

"Oh, nothing, we're just discussing what we're gonna do over the summer." This was not a complete lie, but the subject had completely taken a turn when Teddy interjected about what he was going to do.

"Hmm, summer plans." Debbie commented. "Interesting, we're just gonna get ice cream, play music, read comic books, basically just run around like a bunch of goofballs."

"Yeah, goofballs that are high off soda pop," Lou commented.

"You can't get high off soda pop, everyone knows that!" Vern implied.

"Um, you are incorrect; Jimmie proved you dead wrong two summers ago," Sam stated.

"What did you do?" Teddy asked, obviously interested.

"We took a measly five dollars to the dinner and spent it all on soda pop and milkshakes," Jimmie explained.

"I'm guessing that the milkshakes weren't the best part of the plan," Chris guessed, and Sam nodded.

"We learned that the hard way, the _very _hard way. When I got home, I threw up onto the kitchen floor."

"I spent around 4 hours in the bathroom." Lou mumbled grumpily.

"I spent 5." Jimmie added.

"So what? My mother was so afraid that I somehow contracted some lethal disease and rushed me to the hospital. She was furious when the nurse told her it was because of all of the milkshakes." Debbie kicked a pebble on the side of the playground.

"Yeah, that was pretty smart," Gordie smiled.

"So, back to summer plans…" Sam said leisurely, "…what're _you _guys gonna do?"

"I'll probably just hang around town; there's not really much to do, except ball and cards," Chris commented.

"Yeah, sounds cool. Basically what we're going to do is gonna seem like a joke to all sexists in Castle Rock. _Teddy._"

"What? I'm not sexist! If I'm anything, it's definitely _not_ sexist!"

"Teddy's just sexually obsessed," Lou stated, "he's not sexist."

"Thank you. Wait, what?!"

"I saw you trying to get a look down Kathy's shirt the other day."

"I _did _not!"

"_Yes_, you did; I saw you with my own two eyes."

"Did you see me with anything but your own two eyes?"

"Shut it Duchamp, before I crunch in your face."

"So, what are you girls gonna do?" Vern asked, bringing back the subject.

"We started a band."

The boys burst out laughing, but then stopped when they didn't see the girls join in their laughing spree.

"Oh, you were serious."

"Oh yeah, no duh," Debbie said, sounding rather offended, "Lou happens to be good on guitar, Sam's the best on piano in Castle Rock, Jimmie's our bass guitarist, and I happen to play the drums rather well. I wanted to be lead singer, but they were against me putting on a sultry face for the male audiences. Plus, we needed a drummer."

"So, if you wimps don't believe us…" Sam dragged, sucking on a lollipop, "…then meet us at the benches at the baseball field. 4:30 sharp."

Later, at 4:27.

"Debbie, I don't think they're coming." Sam remarked while tuning her clarinet; when she couldn't play piano, she practiced her music on the clarinet.

"Of course they're not coming; there wasn't any wet stuff dripping from their pants."

"Aw, shut up!" Lou really looked furious this time.

"Debbie, I've had it with your sex-based jokes; they're making me sick to the stomach!"

"Okay, all right, you don't have to get all upset over a harmless little joke."

"Little harmless-oh my God!" Lou shook her head. "You don't understand."

"No, I don't. Forget about it; ready?"

"Yep."

"Yeah."

"Hmm."

Debbie brought out a tambourine and tapped it against her knee as Jimmie started out with her bass guitar solo. Eventually Lou and Sam joined in.

_Ooh wah, ooh wah  
Ooh wah, ooh wah  
Ooh wah, ooh wah  
Why do fools fall in love?I'm a fool you see  
For that fool is me_

_Why do birds sing so gay  
And lovers await the break of the day  
Why do they fall in love?  
Why does the rain fall from up above?  
Why do fools fall in love?  
Why do they fall in love?_

_Love is a losing game  
Love can be a shame  
I know, I'm a fool you see  
__For that fool is me _

The girls watched as the four boys settled themselves onto the benches close by, but did not take their attention off their music.

Teddy had a secret wish to be in place of the guitar that Lou held and cradled so close to her body.

Vern rocked back and forth to the music in excitement.

Chris nodded in approval; the girls weren't that bad at playing music.

Gordie rested his eyes onto Debbie and her physically alluring slender figure that rocked along with the music. _  
_

_Tell me why  
Tell me why __I know  
It will reach defeat  
Tell me why  
Tell me why__  
Tell me why_

_Why do birds sing so gay  
And lovers await the break of the day  
Why do they fall in love?  
Why does the rain fall from up above?  
Why do fools fall in love?  
Why do they fall in love?_

_Why does my heart  
Skip a crazy beat?  
For I know  
__It will reach defeat  
Tell me why  
Tell me why_

_Why do fools fall in love?  
Tell me why  
Tell me why_

"Woo! Go girls!" Vern yelled out, only to be stared at by his three friends. Poor Vern: he shrunk back, looking ashamed even though he had done nothing wrong in particular.

Nevertheless, this comment was appreciated. Lou pulled Vern into a noogie, teasing him, as Jimmie fed him a candy bar and Sam and Debbie patted his hair and pulled his cheeks in an endearing way.

"Vern, you're so sweet!"

"C'mere, buddy!"

"He's just so adorable!"

Vern blushed and sent a smirk towards his friends. They seemed very jealous of his special treatment. Gordie made the best of his chance, so he slightly tilted his head, and his eyes found their target up Debbie's skirt.

As Sam was showing Chris several chords on the guitar, Lou noticed that Debbie and Teddy were in an earnest conversation. She pretended to pack up Sam's clarinet as she strained to listen to what they were saying.

"Are you sure it's gonna work, Debbie? Cuz I don't think that-"

"Give it some time, Theodore; you can't just dive headfirst into the pit: better safe than sorry."

"I'd rather be sorry than, well, you know."

"Don't worry, Teddy. I promise that I'll make it happen."

"D' you think she'll get a whiff of what's going on?"

"Maybe she will, maybe she won't. But even though she has a stubborn crab shell, it can be broken through if we scrape at it continuously and efficiently."

What the hell are they babbling on and on about? Is it me? I do not have a stubborn crab shell! How dare they! Lou thought furiously.

"So, you sure you wanna do this?"

"If it's the only way, then yeah."

"Alright then…" Debbie drawled, scheming as usual, "…let Phase One of Plan L.T.F. begin."

"Okay, so what does 'L.T.F' stand for?"

"I don't wanna tell."

Teddy let out an exasperated sigh. Girls.


	13. That's life for you

Author's Note: Well, here's another chapter for all of you who are interested. By the ways, thanks to all of you who have commented so far!

**prettyinpink2165  
Nightcrawlerlover  
XxxxxMrs.CoreyFeldmanxxxxX  
x.tayla.hearts.mcfly.x  
Tusk of Thyme  
Darth Avery  
SilverRain1.3  
Whispering Bells1959  
Girl-X-91  
Winchester love pie (formerly KatyCake)  
the-angry-pixie (formerly fairywannabe)  
**

Jimmie's journal entry several weeks later.

_Sunday, May 17th, 1959._

_Dear Diary,_

_A lot has happened since I wrote in here, which was at least a month ago. Debbie went on a date with my cousin Ray, which proved to be a successful outing; she came to Sam's house looking as happy as a kitten on a cushion. Sam still doesn't have the courage to talk to Ray's best friend Jason, even though there are slight signs that he's interested. _

_But it hasn't only been good; Gordie Lachance's brother Denny was killed in a jeep accident in April. Debbie and her family went to his funeral since her sister Jane was dating him. When Debbie came back, she told us about the proceedings and how grim the atmosphere was. That's death for you. Lou's second-oldest brother Jack, who was friends with Denny, went to the funeral but did not take the family with him: according to Lou, he had said that he wanted to go alone. _

_She also told us about how impressed she was of Gordie's courage; she watched him for nearly all of the service, but she didn't see him cry once, he didn't even shed one tear. I gotta hand it to that kid; he's a pretty brave guy. _

_Also, three__ weeks ago, when we were sleeping over at Sam's this time, Lou woke up nearly screaming. She told us that she had another dream with the rapist, only this time it _was_ Duchamp. I think I'm gonna kill him. _

_But what was weird was that Lou told us that indeed he had tied her to a recliner and raped her explicitly, after he was done he untied her and apologized. This is even weirder; that he sat himself in the corner of the room and started to cry, not in a sobbing way, but rather that he was shaking and letting the tears come, sobbing only slightly. _

_So according to Lou, she had pulled a blanket over his form and hugged him from behind, and then he turned around __and embraced her, burying his crying face into the crook of her neck. _

_In my opinion, Lou probably screamed because of _that_, not because of the rape. But this is just what _I _think; it might not necessarily be relevant. But this version of the dream, according to Lou, has only happened once, so we're back to hearing about the rapist without the glasses with even more sexual greed than Duchamp. _

_To tell the truth, I don't really like the kid; I don'__t trust him, but I just get along with him for Lou's sake. If I had my way, I would buzz and hack through him with the chainsaw that I keep up under my bed in case of intruders. _

_I can't believe how many girls are buying dolls nowadays, and especially Barbies! I mean, they just came out for the first time awhile ago, and now suddenly it's some kind of national sensation. Ugh, it's frickin' sickening._

_For some reason, Debbie wants to prim Lou up for the summer. Something about "making an impression" and "getting a move on with her love life," and Lou was like "stupid waste of time" and "you'll make me look like Bettie Page again." Personally, I agree with her; men are a complete waste of time at this age. Women should only worry about men after puberty; around ages 18-25. _

_When Lou kept using Bettie Page in defense to _not_ getting her face manicured again, I asked her to show me a picture of her, y' know, to see if what she was saying was true. So she did. Surprisingly, she has a point; same hair, same facial structure, and basically the same body proportions. It's freaky, as if Lou was a younger version of her in tomboy format; they even have the same short bangs. But I must admit Duchamp had reasons for goggling at her that night back in March; she really did look like a model, maybe even a movie star._

_I hate school, we all do, but I don't want it to end for some reason. Maybe because of the matter of shop classes and college courses; we're not all going to have classes together next year. But we're still gonna meet weekly at the Blue Point Diner in hopes of not splitting up and going in different directions, because it's way too depressing. Well, I guess that's life. But even though we're still gonna be meeting doesn't mean we can't meet new people. _

_Argh, Lou's really pissing me off nowadays; she got a camera, it's called a Polaroid, otherwise known as the instant camera. It's the Land model, as she tells me. I refuse to pose most of the time, so Lou usually just takes snapshots of whatever she can catch me doing at the time she's carrying it around. I swear to God, that thing looks dangerous, with all of that machinery and the noise that it makes. _

_I can only get her to stop when I threaten her with "Hey, why don't you take pictures of yourself, _Bettie_?" And she puts down the camera, muttering stuff like "Touché." Then Sam comes over and says "I believe it is _touche_." Then we stare at her and shrug. _

_To be honest, all of the boys in our grade complete idiots. I hate it when Debbie makes me and Sam watch them play baseball. At least watching Lou kick their butts is fun, though I wish she would literally. That would be funny. Hey, I can dream, can't I? Well, that's a name of a song by the Andrews Sisters. They're jazzy, so they're pretty cool. __But I really miss Buddy Holly; we've all been in a bit of a gloom storm since February 3__rd__ this year; he and Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper J.P. Richardson all died in a plane crash in Iowa. RIP Buddy Holly._

_Anyways, I asked Sam why she needed Gordie's help in order to write a song, and she told me that a story is needed to write a song, and rumor has it that Gordie has a pretty good hand for stories. _

"Why didn't you ask _me_?" _I had asked her._

"Because you shudder at the mere thought of love stories."

_She had a point, but still; how does she know that Gordie won't turn down her request for help? She claims that Gordie is too nice and docile to do so. Well, she's right. _

_Well, now it's 10:31, guess I have to get to sleep now; I have school tomorrow. Goodnight, and goodbye for now. I promise to write in here soon! Then again that's what I promised last time. Oh well. Bye!_

_-Jimmie._


	14. Stunner

A.N.- I updated! Hope you guys like it! If you guys have questions, comments, or concerns, then just send me a message and I'll get to it! **BTW if you guys think you know what Teddy has asked Debbie to do, then message me about that as** **well.** Thanks to everyone who commented!! I LUV YOU GUYS!!

-Becky

May 19th.

"So Lou, your dog is gonna have another litter of puppies?"

"Mm-hmm," Lou mumbled. She was starting to get bored with being asked this question.

"The sixth batch? When will they be out of the womb?"

"C'mon, Georgie, don't make them sound like a pizza."

Georgina Decker was a girl that had lived in Denver and knew Lou at one point before moving to the View. She went to a different school than Lou, but they were still on good terms.

Georgina had straight red hair that was _almost_ the color of succulent strawberries. Her face was barely white except for the dusting of cute freckles on her nose and her cheeks. She wore a green plaid skirt and a neat but casual white blouse.

"So, how come you never had her spayed?"

"Hmm, I dunno; well, Scout's been with me and my family since I was nine, and I think that my parents didn't think it was necessary. Besides, at least they're the ones that are condemned to help Scout whenever she gives birth. They said that once I'm twelve, then I can start helping. But that's just another reason for me _not _looking forward to my birthday this year."

Georgina laughed lightly, and then threw back her long hair.

"That's not the only thing you're dreading, huh?"

"Whattaya mean?" Lou frowned.

"I mean," Georgina giggled, "_puberty_."

Lou stared at her in utter disgust.

"I am in no way excited about _that _either," Lou grumbled.

"Any boys that you like?"

"Nope.

"Any boys that you think are cute?"

"Nu-uh."

"You should meet my cousin; he lives in the View too."

"Does he like baseball?"

"Yep."

"Then I'd gladly meet him, just as long as it's on a baseball diamond, not on a dance floor." Lou stated clearly.

Georgina nodded understandingly. Despite being brought up in the View, she had accepted long ago Lou's tomboy policies without questioning or assuming.

"Listen Lou," Georgina looked at her friend with a longing look in her eyes, "can I have one of the puppies?"

"Sure!" Lou exclaimed happily. "But you'll have to pay for his vaccinations, have him housetrained, buy him food and toys, and most importantly-!"

"-Give him lots and lots of love!" Georgina finished for her.

"You've got it!" Lou hugged her friend.

Later, when she got home, there was a foul stench in the air; blood.

"Oh shit." Lou ran downstairs to the basement. Sure enough, her parents and her brothers were tending to Scout the golden retriever, who seemed to be in pain.

"Lou, get us towels!"

"I thought that you didn't want me to help until-!"

"Forget the damned rule! Just get more towels before we all start swimming in blood and placenta!"

Lou nodded, and then ran back upstairs. She grabbed a load full of towels, and tossed them down to her brother Max.

"Thanks, Lulu!"

"No problem!"

She sat down on a stool to think for a moment, and then an idea came. Lou grabbed the telephone and quickly dialed a number.

"Pick up, pick up, please pick up," Lou muttered to herself.

"Hello?"

"Georgina, if you want to watch puppies being born, then this will probably be the only time you ever will Scout give the gift of life. So if you want to see and help out, then get your pretty little patooshka down from the View and come to my house!"

Lou put down the phone.

Sure enough, ten minutes later, Georgina knocked on the door. Lou opened it in a rush, almost being run over by her excited friend.

"Here, put this on." Lou pulled out a smock and draped it over Georgina's skirt and blouse. Then she pulled her by the arm and dragged her downstairs.

Twenty minutes later, the family and the friend screamed in delight as the first puppy left his mother's womb and was welcomed into a warm, soft towel.

Five minutes later, the second puppy breathed air for the first time.

Seven minutes after that, the third and fourth puppies came out seconds apart from each other.

"How many more are there?" Georgina asked excitedly as the fifth puppy was being weighed on a scale.

"We think that there's one left, and that one, my friend, is for you." Lou said as she recorded the little dog's weight and length in a little book.

"How are you so sure?"

"Well, it's just a prediction; the last time we had another miracle was 1957; weighing about nine and a half ounces and was about six inches in length. But I doubt that anything like that will happen after that long a period of time."

Georgina nodded, and then focused her attention on Scout's stomach.

"Mom, I think the last one's coming now!" shouted Daniel, Lou's third-oldest brother as blood was expelled from the dog's birth canal. Like magic, the whole family gathered around. Sure enough, there was a head that was beginning to poke out.

"Okay, Max get more towels! Lou, stand by on the scale and ruler! Daniel, try to calm Scout down! And honey-" Lou's mother turned to her husband, "-well, um, get the scissors!"

"What are the scissors for?" Georgina asked.

"To cut the umbilical cord," Max replied with a slight grimace on his face.

Georgina shuddered a little.

"Maxwell, don't scare her!"

"Sorry, Mom!"

The puppy was stillborn.

Georgina had locked herself in the bathroom of her friend's house.

_Why did it have to die? _She thought to herself as she cried, putting her face in her hands and sobbing hysterically.

_So much for having something that can't be bought with; sure, the vaccinations and other things cost money, but you can't buy the dog's love?_

"How long has she been in there?" Max asked his sister.

"Twelve minutes."

"Can somebody _please _get her out of there?!" Danny complained, cupping his hands. "I need to wash my hands!"

"Do you think that we could revive the puppy?"

"How? Give it the kiss of life?"

"Brilliant idea, Max," Danny said, "and as you do that, could you get her out of the fucking bathroom?!"

"Danny, calm down! Don't be so uptight." Lou snapped.

"Uptight? _Uptight?!_ My hands are covered in fucking blood, my shirt's covered in fucking placenta, and I've spent hours of my life cutting more fucking dog umbilical cords than I can even count! And you expect me to just be fucking uptight?!"

Max sighed.

"Lou, where's the mutt?"

"Here." Lou handed her brother a small towel that had the motionless puppy wrapped inside.

"Oh my fucking God," Danny's eyes widened as his younger brother unwrapped the towel, "you can't be fucking serious, Max."

Max looked at his brother for a moment, and then took in a deep breath.

"I can't watch this," Lou said as she covered her eyes.

"Me either," Danny agreed and covered his eyes as well.

Max, with his cheeks full of air, rolled his eyes, and then blew oxygen into the puppy orally.

And blew again.

And blew again.

"Max, that's just really fucking gross," Danny muttered with his hands still over his eyes, "man, no girl is gonna want to plant one on you now."

"Well, I don't think that they have to _know_," Lou commented, trying to blur all disturbing mental images that were coming.

Max rubbed the puppy a little, and then while looking down, his jaw dropped.

"Guys, it's moving! The puppy's moving!"

"What?!"

Lou and Danny uncovered their eyes; sure enough, the little dog was shaking a little. It whimpered for its mother.

"MOM! DAD! THE PUPPY'S ALIVE!!"

Georgina bolted out of the bathroom and was obviously the first one to reach the trio. She took the puppy and held it close to her very gently.

"Oh God, it's a miracle." Georgina was crying again, only this time she was crying of joy.

"Well, Georgina, in eight weeks," Max said affectionately, "_she's_ all yours."

"She? The puppy's a girl?" Georgina was astonished, not at the idea that Max could easily tell between genders, but that she was expecting the puppy to be a boy. Nevertheless, she was very excited at the idea of owning a dog.

"I was thinking of calling her _Stunner_," Georgina continued, "what do you think of _Stunner_, sweet little angel?"

The puppy seemingly yapped in approval, putting a smile on Georgina's face.

"Thank you," Georgina said smiling, "thank you."

Lou and Max smiled in turn as Danny ran to wash off his hands in the bathroom (and possibly puke on the floor).


	15. Teddy's goodluck charm

OMIGOD I'M SO SORRY YOU GUYS!!!! I'VE BEEN WANTING TO UPDATE FOR OH SO DAMN LONG BUT I NEVER GOT THE CHANCE AND MY COMPUTER BROKE DOWN SO I LOST EVERYTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!! SIGH. So yeah, hopefully this chapter was worth the 6-month wait. Please review it!  
-Becky

"And so that's what happened," Lou said at lunch the next day.

"Wow, what was it like helping Scout give birth to puppies?" Jimmie asked.

"It was disgusting, but it was worth it. By the way, do my hands stink?"

Lou held out her hands, and Sam took a whiff.

"Whew, your hands smell like puke on a hot day!" Sam replied, fanning her hand in front of her face to dispel the stench.

"I was afraid of that."

"You know what? I think that Max likes Georgie; that's why he couldn't stand to see her sad without the puppy."

"Debbie, shut up; don't go on about that _again_."

"But it's so obvious! Have you ever seen the way he looks at her and how he talks to her and-"

"She said "shut up," Debbie, so shut up." Jimmie snapped.

"So, when does Georgina take Stunner home with her?" Sam asked.

"In several weeks, but something tells me that it's gonna be really tough trying to keep that pup out of trouble."

"What makes you think that?" Debbie asked curiously.

"Once Georgie left, Stunner peed on the floor."

The other three girls burst out laughing, and Lou rolled her eyes. It was nice to have friends who were so understanding of her troubles.

"So, are we still meeting at the Blue Point on Friday?" Sam asked.

"I think so, 'cause I-oh crap!" Lou grabbed the sides of her head and kept shaking it. "No, no, no…"

"What is it?" Jimmie asked.

Lou looked at her, and Jimmie readily understood.

"Oh, right! On Friday you and the guys have to play against the boys from the View."

Lou nodded, and then gave Debbie a pleading look.

"No, Lou, we're not postponing going to the diner; you know it gets crowded fast!"

"Then what am I supposed to tell the guys?"

"Tell them you don't want to play!"

"But I _do_ want to play!"

"Why do you want to play ball so bad? You're a _girl_; girls don't play ball!"

Lou froze, and then Debbie realized what she had just done.

"Lou, I'm really sorry-"

"Forget it; I'll go tell the guys that I can't play."

Shaking her head, Lou got up and began walking in the opposite direction.

"Debbie, can I say something without you getting angry?" Sam asked.

"Sure, what is it?"

"Well-"

"You're a bitch." Jimmie finished for Sam. She got up and ran after Lou.

"Uh, yeah," Sam commented.

Debbie looked at Sam and stuffed a napkin into her mouth.

"Hey, Lou?"

"What do you want?"

"Play ball."

"Why should I? I'm a _girl._"

"You really shouldn't pay attention to what Debbie says all the time."

Lou spun around.

"I do _not_!"

"Yeah, you do," Jimmie replied.

"_No_, I don't." Lou determinately claimed.

Jimmie just stared at her for a moment, and then rolled her eyes.

"Okay, then what is it called when you heavily rely on somebody else's opinion?" she countered.

Lou frowned. Jimmie just sighed, and then motioned for her to sit down. She sat in the tree.

"Do you wanna at least hear my plan?"

"Which is what, exactly?"

"Me smuggling you into the game without Debbie knowing, you dimwit," Jimmie replied.

"There's no way we could get away with that; it's not like we could have somebody double for me!"

"No, but I can think of something, or rather, _somebody_, who will distract Debbie the whole time you're gone, and when you get back, she'll ask when you got there, and you'll just say that you were there the whole time."

"Hmm, it could work, but still-"

"But still what?"

"Nevermind. I just hope that when the guys drop over later, they won't say anything to Debbie."

"Oh trust me, they won't. Otherwise…"

"Otherwise what?"

"Otherwise…" Jimmie indicated something in her pocket that looked like a gun, only a little different, "…their balls get tasered off. _All_ of 'em."

Lou looked suspiciously at Jimmie.

"Um, Jimmie, where'd you get that thing?"

"My uncle made it for me as protection in case I get mugged, now back to the baseball." It seemed quite clear that Jimmie wanted to avoid the subject of the very early prototype of what the people of today call taser guns.

"Ray!" Ray!" Lou ran after the boy on the street.

He turned around, and grinned.

"Hey, Louise."

"Don't call me that."

"Sorry Lou, what's going on?"

"Could you do me a favor?"

"What?"

"Go to the diner on Friday and distract Debbie so I can go play in the baseball match against the View boys."

"No."

"What?"

"I can't; I have to play too."

"Please? Think of Debbie's irresistibly soft hair and her smooth skin…" Lou loved doing this to Ray; think of it as an effective method of mental torture. Lou could see that it was already having an effect on Ray. Seeing him stiffen up, she continued.

"…Think of her pretty eyes looking into yours, imagine her body sinking in onto your own, think of what her lips would taste like against yours, think of-"

"Alright, alright, alright, I'll do it! Just stop doing that; are you tryin' to kill me here?" Ray asked, obviously frustrated by all of this.

"Yes." Lou smiled innocently. Ray stared at her, and then sighed.

"Are you sure that this'll work?"

"If it doesn't, I'll pay you for tryin'."

"Alright, shake on it?"

They shook on it.

Later, when Lou was walking home, Teddy sprung out of the bushes.

"How's it goin', Lou?"

"Hi Ted. Just thinking about our game against the kids from the View on Friday," she replied.

"I thought Debbie didn't want you to play."

"Where'd you hear that?" Lou was suspicious that Teddy might have been eavesdropping on the conversation earlier at lunch.

"I hear things. So, does Debbie know?"

"Nope; I'm rebelling."

"Oooh, feisty. Teddy like."

Lou froze and stared at him. He just smiled.

_Did he really just say that, or did I imagine it? _Lou thought to herself anxiously. Either way, it was creeping her out a little. She walked a little faster.

"What's the hurry, Lou? It's not like you're gonna turn into a pumpkin if you don't get home by 4:00."

Lou stifled a laugh and turned back to look at Teddy.

"Okay, Duchamp, what's goin' on?" Now Teddy had her confused as hell.

"I just wanna know if I should get a good-luck token for the game on Friday. What'd ya' think?" Teddy asked.

"Do whatever the hell you want; it's not like it affects me." Lou replied, though a little uncertain.

"Well, not exactly."

"What'd you mean?"

Teddy stepped forward, pulled Lou towards him, and pecked her on the cheek. He looked at her again, and then smiled. He stepped away from Lou, turned around, and walked away. Lou was frozen to the spot. She wanted to hurl insults at him, but could not find the voice to do so. She just moved her hand up to her cheek and touched the spot where Teddy's warm lips had kissed her softly. She felt herself turn hot. No, it felt more like her face was burning.

_What…was that? _

I can't believe this took so long to finish and submit, I hate the new FanFiction account format; I miss the old format. It was less confusing. Hope you guys liked this chapter!  
-Becky


	16. Yakety Yak Don't Talk Back

OH MY GOD YOU GUYS I AM SOOOOO SORRY!!!!! I've just realized that I haven't updated anything in more than a year. Shame on me, cuz I'm really really sorry. I'll be updating on a more regular basis from now on, well, after I'm done with the SAT stuff that is... :P But yeah, I'll update "For the Love of Frog" really soon, and I'll be adding some new stuff as well. I PROMISE!!!  
So yeah, please read and review! Thank you guys for being awesome!!! :D

Max sat on the front porch, listening to the radio as he polished his boots. He hummed and sang along to the song playing on K-L-A-M in Portland.

_Take out the papers and the trash  
Or you don't get no spendin' cash  
_

He rubbed the boot harder, determined to get a spot out of the side of the foot. He gritted his teeth as moisture began to build between his fingers and his polishing cloth. He then heard the front door swing open behind him, and somebody stepped outside.

"Maxwell?"

Max turned around to look up to his mother standing in the doorway, forearms crossed across her chest. "Yeah?"

"Have you seen Louise?"

_If you don't scrub that kitchen floor  
You ain't gonna rock and roll no more  
Yakety yak (don't talk back)_

He shook his head. "No ma'am, I haven't. If she was home, I'da' seen her walk up."

His mother sighed, and stepped back through the doorway. She leaned back out briefly. "When your sister gets home, tell her to start her homework. Just because she's almost done with grade school doesn't necessarily mean that she can start slacking off." With that last comment, she shut the front door. Max sighed and resumed his work, singing along with the Coasters.

_Just finish cleanin' up your room  
Let's see that dust fly with that broom_

He thought about how more chores and more errands were being piled onto him as another brother left for college. First Peter, now Jack; soon enough, Danny would be out of the house too. After that, he and Lou would be the only ones left, and he had four more years to go before going off to college.

_Get all that garbage out of sight  
Or you don't go out Friday night  
Yakety yak (don't talk back)  
_

Recently their mother had become more irritable, and he had already made a few good guesses why. There were two reasons to be precise, the first one being the heartbreak of having another teenager about to begin senior year, and then having them leave for college the next fall.

_  
You just put on your coat and hat  
And walk yourself to the laundromat  
_

The second reason was obvious; his sister's rebellion against "nature." Lou avoided wearing dresses, skirts, headbands, scarves, blouses, and any other article of feminine taste. She played baseball rather than play with dolls, and she climbed trees, ran through the mud, and did everything that a boy did. Their mother, who had hoped for a daughter, complained sometimes that she might as well have had another son.

_And when you finish doin' that  
Bring in the dog and put out the cat  
Yakety yak (don't talk back)_

"Don't you give me no dirty looks," Max sang to himself as he set down his boot to pick up the other one, "your father's hip; he knows what cooks. Just tell your hoodlum friends outside-" he looked up and saw Lou in the driveway "-Hey-a Lou, Mom wants you inside! Yakety yak! Don't talk back!"

Lou looked up from the asphalt, and her eyes narrowed slightly, as if to say "_Got anything better to do than just whistle and scoff?_" Max shrugged. As Lou walked up to the front porch, he noticed that there was something weird about the air around her. He opened his mouth to ask her what was wrong, but he closed his mouth. Lou got up the steps past him and walked inside.

Max sighed, and continued polishing his boot. "Yakety yak yakety yak, yakety yak yakety yak," he sang along to the radio. All of a sudden, one of the windows above him was thrown open. Max turned around and looked up, and saw his brother stretching out the window.

"Oi, Max! Turn down the racket; I'm trying to work up here!" Danny yelled from the second story.

"What are you talking, Dan?!" Max yelled back, "How can you even hear it? You're up on the frickin' second story!"

"Well, it's loud enough to get on my nerves, so turn it down!"

"But maybe I don't _want _to!"

"For God's sake, Max, I'm trying to work on a history paper; turn the racket down or I'll come down myself and shove the radio down your fuckin' throat!"

"If you do that, I'll shove your precious fountain pens into both your ears!"

Lou then came out from the front door and ran halfway across the front lawn. She stopped, and then turned in the direction of the house. She then cupped her hands along her mouth as to amplify her voice.

"Mom says that if either of you try to pull something funny, then she'll haul you both into the kitchen and make you peel all of the potatoes she just got from the grocer! And if I might add, _after _she shoves a hot spatula up your you-know-wheres!!!"

She then ran back up the front porch and closed the door behind her, but not before Max heard their mother say "Now that's my girl" with a smile in her voice. Max rolled his eyes, and he heard Danny close the window upstairs. He tuned the radio down a little bit, and then began rubbing at his boot. He whistled to himself, digging his fingers deep into the cloth as to scrape off the dirt more efficiently. He glanced upwards every so often, just to see who was passing by. Usually it was just the occasional neighbor. Or a neighbor's cat that sometimes climbed over the fence and tried to mate with the plastic flamingo.

He then heard a knock on the front picket fence door. He looked up and saw Gordie standing at the front gate.

"Hey LaChance," Max beckoned him forward, "c'mon in."

Gordie nodded, and pushed open the door. "Thanks man," he said as he made it to the front porch.

"Eh, it's no problem. So, what can I do for you? No wait, lemme guess; you wanna go in and have a chat with my little sister, right?'

"Well, yeah… and I wanted to ask you something."

Max put down the boot and sighed. "I'm _not _lendin' you any soda cash, got that LaChance?"

Gordie held up his hands, palms forward. "No, man, I wasn't gonna ask you for any money."

Max frowned. "Alright then," he paused, picking up his boot again, "what did you want to ask?"

"Umm…" Gordie struggled to word his question in a way that didn't make him sound like a bumbling idiot, "Suppose that you like a girl, but she already likes someone else, and that person likes her. You're not exactly enemies with the guy, but you're not best of friends with him either. So, what do I do?"

"You better not be talking about my sister."

"I'm not."

Max sighed. "I've heard people complain to me about that situation _over _and _over_, and I still don't get why people come to _me_." He sighed again, then lifted his boot and spat on the foot. He rubbed harder with the cloth, and then he set it down. It was now clean and polished as a businessman's or a politician's. Gordie watched him rub his dirty hands on the cloth, and then stuff it in his back jeans pocket.

"LaChance, you're only, what? Twelve years old? Ya' got the rest of your life to worry about this stuff, so I wouldn't worry that much about it now. But knowing that probably doesn't help that much, so listen: sure, they like each other now, but what about in two years? Maybe one of them will move away, maybe they'll lose interest in each other and break it off, maybe they'll just call it quits 'cause even though they might really care for each other, they can't live together, something along those lines."

He paused for a moment, and then continued. "Just wait a bit and see what happens, just don't try to come between them now, 'cause then things will end badly, and not necessarily just for you." He picked up his boots and straightened himself up to get inside. "Well, I hope that I've enlightened you a little bit. So, d'you want to talk to my sister or not?"

"Oh, uh, yeah," Gordie stammered.

"Hang on a sec, I'll get her out here," Max said. He pushed some hair out of his face, and then elbowed the front door. It opened, and so he went in. Gordie sighed, and sat down on the steps. He listened as Max took a few steps in, and then stopped.

"Hey Lou? LaChance wants to talk to you."

Then Lou said something that Gordie couldn't really distinguish.

"What do you mean you don't really want to talk to anyone?"

Gordie frowned; Lou never had any problems with him coming over to talk before; what was going on?

"Well, what do you want me to tell him? 'Oh sorry, LaChance, my sister's feeling sick; it must be starting for her.'"

Gordie then heard someone being slapped.

"Owww! Geez Mom, I was only kidding," he heard Max say. He had a feeling that right now he was causing Max some problems with his mother and his sister, and that now wasn't the greatest time to hang around and talk to Lou. But he couldn't leave either; it would give Max a reason to kick his ass behind the fence next time he came around. He put his head in one hand, facing the driveway.

He was surprised to feel a cold nose tickle his arm. He turned around, and saw a beautiful golden retriever dog look at him with a comforting look in her soft dark brown eyes. "Hey Scout," he reached a hand up and pet the dog on the head. "At least you're happy to see me."

"As opposed to what, Gordo?" he heard a voice behind him say. He turned around and saw Lou standing against the wall, with a small smile on her face.

"Hey Walker, you doing alright? 'Cause I heard-"

"Yeah, well…" Lou sat down next to him, "I've been better."

"Are you sick or somethin'?"

"No, but I'm feelin' kinda…" she trailed off.

"In shock?" He didn't expect himself to be correct, but Lou lightly nodded.

"I guess, but I don't really want to talk about it right now."

"Okay, so… are you still playing with us on Friday against the kids from the View?"

"Of course I am; why shouldn't I?"

"Well, I just supposed that-"

"If you're talking about my mom, she doesn't know; if you're talking about Debbie, she doesn't know."

"How does she not know?" he asked suspiciously.

"Umm…" Lou didn't want to say it, but she had to. "I set Ray up to distract her."

Gordie's hand fell from Scout's head to his side. Lou had a truly apologetic look in her eyes, but he didn't want to look her in the face; he was too angry to do that.

"Gordie, I'm really sorry. I should've thought of you first, but it was a pain having her rag on me all the time. If it'll make you feel any better, hit me."

"What?"

"Just do it, okay?"

Gordie shook his head. Lou sighed. "Well, can we at least play some catch? Just for five minutes?"

Gordie sighed; he couldn't be mad at Lou, but he wanted to be. Nevertheless, he got up, and Lou reached for two old beat-up baseball mitts.

"Here, catch!" She threw the ball to Gordie, but it missed his glove by five feet.

"Whoops, sorry!" she said as he leaned over to pick it up. He tossed it back to her, and she jumped up to catch it, but it went right through her hands. Gordie frowned as he watched Lou mutter to herself and pick up the ball. Something was definitely wrong with her; usually she was just as good as the boys, but now she was playing… like a girl?

"I'm sorry, Gordie, usually I'm not this sloppy." She twirled the ball in her hand, looking perplexed.

"Maybe you're just not really feeling it today," he suggested, but Lou shook her head.

"No, I'm sure it's just a start-off fluke; just give me a few more goes."

So he did, and over and over, Lou either missed the ball or her throw was off-target. Nevertheless, Gordie kept throwing her the ball, hoping as well that this was just a temporary thing. As the minutes wore on, Lou began to look more desperate, and he grew more worried.

A few minutes later, Lou was sitting on the grass after the ball went past her open mitt and hit her (not hard) on the forehead. Gordie suggested again that this just wasn't her day to play baseball.

"But I was playing fine earlier. It was only after…" Her face blanched and turned rigid. Gordie cocked his head to the side in curiosity; yes, there was definitely something wrong with her.

"What's going on, Lou? Did anything happen on your way home?"

Lou's face turned red, and her eyes glimmered in fury. "Yes," she said menacingly through gritted teeth, "as a matter of fact, something _did_ happen on my way home."

"What? Did Teddy try to feel up your shirt again? 'Cause I know for a fact that if he did, then you'd easily kick his ass, no questions asked…" he trailed off, because then Lou's face turned the color of a beet.

She sighed. "Excuse me for a second." She walked up to the corner of the fence, where there was a thick stone in the grass. She climbed up onto it, and then straightened herself up on top of it. She then took in a deep breath, and Gordie stuck his hands over his ears.

"DAMN YOU, DUCHAMP!!! I HATE YOU!!!!"

Just then, Danny threw open his bedroom window. "Damn it, you guys, can't you tell that I'm trying to work up here?!"

"Sorry, Danny!" Lou hollered up to him. Danny fumed, and then shut his window with a SLAM.

Max opened the kitchen window and stuck his head out, frowning. "Hey, is everything all right?"

"Uh, yeah," Gordie said quickly.

"Then what's with the yelling?" Max asked suspiciously.

"It's nothing, Max, don't worry about it," Lou said before he could ask any more questions. He sighed, and stepped back from the kitchen window and closed it. Lou got down from the rock, and then started kicking at the fence, muttering something along the lines of "Damn it, damn it, damn it. Damn my life, damn my rotten luck, damn you Duchamp…"

Gordie raised his eyebrows, but no further questions. _Wow_, he thought to himself as he continued to watch Lou curse at the fence, _wonder what Teddy could've done to get her like _this._ Then again, I wouldn't put it past him to find a way to really get her under his skin. But if he didn't force her to play doctor with him, then what did he do?_

Gordie knew that, although Teddy was one of the more perverted boys in their grade, he was incapable of rape, especially if it was Lou; he'd have lost his balls as quick as you could say "That's All, Folks." He shook his head, and then said bye to Lou for the day, and told her that he hoped she'd snap out of her funk soon so that she could play again. Lou said thanks, and waved goodbye as he walked down the driveway.

As for Max, he stood in the foyer, forearms crossed across his chest. He was deep in thought; what was going on with his sister? He sighed, and as his mother called him to come help set the table, that he'd bring it up after dinner.

So, what'd you guys think? Has my writing style changed from last year? For the better? For the worse? I'd like to know, so message me or gimme a review pplz! ;)


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